DOVER, England (AP) – Trucks slowly passed checkpoints in the English port of Dover and crossed the English Channel to the French port of Calais on Thursday after France partially reopened its borders with Great Britain following a scare over a fast-spreading new coronavirus variant .
Only a small fraction of the thousands of frustrated truck drivers and travelers have so far survived the massive stalemate in Dover on Christmas Eve, held up by the slow delivery of the coronavirus tests now being demanded by France. One by one, trucks drove towards ferries and trains connecting Britain to France, while authorities checked to see if the drivers had the negative virus tests needed to cross.
On the French side, the sprawling port of Calais – which normally carries up to 4,000 trucks a day – remained quieter than usual.
“Unfortunately, due to the logistical problems preventing cargo from entering the port, we were only able to transport 144 trucks from Dover,” said shipping company DFDS. The company is struggling to arrange Christmas Day sailings to resolve the issue, it added.
Officials warned that it could take days to clear the backlog. A British road transport expert estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 trucks could end up in the chaos at Dover, but a minister said it was about 4,000 trucks.
French Ambassador Catherine Colonna said two dozen French firefighters have been sent to Dover, with 10,000 coronavirus tests for drivers desperate to go home for Christmas. UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said UK and French authorities have agreed to keep the border between the countries open throughout Christmas to help truck drivers and travelers get home.
Dozens of countries around the world started banning people from Britain last weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said large areas of southern England, including London, needed to be more heavily restrained to curb a new, more contagious version of the virus .
The temporary closure of the border by France was most worrying, as France is an important channel for trade and travel between Britain and the continent. The UK relies heavily on commercial connections across the Channel to the continent at this time of year for food, especially for fresh fruit and vegetables.
The announcement of the coronavirus variant came as Europe was surrounded by rising new virus infections and deaths. Europe as a whole has recorded more than 500,000 virus-related deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University census that experts agree is likely to be an under-number due to missed cases and other factors.
In Britain, infection rates have skyrocketed in recent weeks, with many hospitals approaching their capabilities. On Wednesday, the country reported a further 744 deaths and a record 39,237 confirmed new cases. Christmas gatherings and festive shopping were canceled for millions at the last minute in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, London now has the highest percentage of positive test subjects in the country. It estimated that 2.1% of people in the capital had COVID-19 in mid-December, compared to about 1.18%, or one in 85 people, for the wider population in England.
The majority of the new positive cases in London were believed to be the coronavirus variant, the statistics office said.
In France, officials defended the country’s handling of the border after the EU transport commissioner expressed unusually strong criticisms.
Commissioner Adina Valean from Romania tweeted: “I regret that France went against our recommendations and returned us to the situation we were in in March when supply chains were disrupted.”
French Minister of European Affairs, Clement Beaune, tweeted back that France “had followed exactly the EU recommendation” and is now “more open than other European countries” to arrivals from Britain.
China became the last country to suspend flights to and from the UK on Thursday
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Angela Charlton contributed from Paris.
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