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UK Transport Secretary Says 36 Truck Drivers Stuck Near Dover Test Positive for COVID-19

© REUTERS / TOBY MELVILLELorries are parked on the M20 motorway towards Eurotunnel and the Port of Dover, as EU countries impose a travel ban from the UK following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Folkestone, Britain, December 21, 2020
Lorries are parked on the M20 motorway towards Eurotunnel and the Port of Dover, as EU countries impose a travel ban from the UK following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Folkestone, Britain, December 21, 2020 - Sputnik International
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MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - Thirty-six truck drivers who were stranded in the English county of Kent after the French government temporarily banned all passenger and human-accompanied freight transport from the United Kingdom have tested positive for COVID-19, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Saturday.

"Update on Kent lorry situation: 15,526 #Coronavirus tests now carried out. Just 36 positive results, which are being verified (0.23%)," Shapps wrote on Twitter.

Thousands of trucks were directed to Manston Airport, a former military base and civilian airfield, after the French government issued an initial 48-hour ban on accompanied freight transport from the UK that began this past Monday. The ban followed the discovery of a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 in southeast England.

After the ban expired, the French government partially reopened the border, and the UK government launched a mass testing campaign in order to ease the backlog and allow drivers who tested negative for COVID-19 to cross the English Channel to France.

Shapps added that Manston Airport was now cleared of trucks.

Many European countries have issued a temporary ban on flights to and from the UK following the discovery of the new coronavirus strain, which is believed to be more easily transmissible. 

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