LONDON (AP) – About 1,000 British soldiers spent Christmas Day trying to clear a massive backlog of truck drivers trapped in South East England after France briefly closed its border with the UK and then demanded coronavirus testing for fear for a new, apparently more contagious, virus variant.
Although an estimated 4,000 international truck drivers will spend another day trapped in their taxis, some progress was seen on Friday, with traffic around the English Channel harbor from Dover moving in an orderly manner to the additional ferries to make the short crossing to Calais in Northern France. Rail operator Eurotunnel was also active again, offering a way back to France.
Military personnel directed traffic and assisted a large-scale testing program for the drivers, who had to test negative to enter France. French firefighters have also been called up to help the military test drivers for coronavirus. The Polish Territorial Defense Forces also sent reinforcements to assist with testing and food distribution.
British transport secretary Grant Shapps said he had ordered the military to take control of the testing as part of an effort to “get foreign carriers home with their families as soon as possible.”
Transportation department officials have said all but three tests have been negative. Those who test positive will be offered accommodation. Most tests are conducted at a disused airfield at Manston Airport, 20 miles (33 kilometers) from Dover.
France closed its border to the UK for 48 hours last Sunday after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a variant of the virus that is 70% more transmissible is driving the rapid spread of infections in London and surrounding areas. As a result, the capital and many other parts of England have tightened lockdown restrictions and canceled family holidays.
Free food and drink was sent to the stranded truck drivers and more than 250 portable toilets were installed in Manston, and 32 others along the jammed M20 highway. The British Coast Guard said its teams in the Dover area had so far delivered 3,000 hot meals, 600 pizzas and 2,985 packed lunches.
“Most reassuringly, the food in Manston is coming through well, and I have to thank everyone who volunteered to help drivers keep it in cold conditions in the days leading up to Christmas,” said Duncan Buchanan of Great Britain’s Association for road transport.
The mood among the stranded drivers turned out to be mostly optimistic, especially compared to their anger earlier this week about the situation and the lack of facilities.
The virus is responsible for more than 1.7 million confirmed deaths worldwide. On Friday, the UK recorded a further 570 virus-related deaths, bringing the total to 70,195, the second highest death toll in Europe after Italy.
On Saturday, Britain extends tighter lockdown restrictions to more areas as authorities try to stop the spread of the new variant. In the past two days, the UK has recorded the two highest daily rates of infection, at just under 40,000. This has fueled fears that the country’s beloved National Health Service will soon be facing acute capacity problems in its hospitals and that thousands more people will die from the virus.
In a video message to the nation, Johnson said this Christmas was “not about presents, or turkey, or brandy butter” but hope, in the form of coronavirus vaccinations and more vaccines being developed.
“We know there will be people next Christmas, people we love, will live next Christmas precisely because we made the sacrifice and did not celebrate this Christmas as usual,” the prime minister said.
Johnson said Thursday that more than 800,000 people in Britain have received the first dose of the vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnology company BioNTech. The UK was the first country in the world to approve the vaccine and began vaccinations for health workers and people over 80 on December 8.
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