"It's been three days that I am here, that I have not showered", exasperated a road, stranded in England.
Like her, they are thousands to have been trapped on the other side of the Channel, as the country plunged into final confinement on Sunday, following the discovery of a potentially more contagious strain of Covid-19 .
Without news about the launch of the screening of stranded nationals, the exasperated drivers shouted their anger.
Without toilets or hot meals, a few dozen of them had tense and briefly muscular exchanges with the local police, at the dawn of a timid deconfinement of the country.
On edge, the truck drivers deplore not "seeing these antigenic tests" while the connections to France have resumed since Wednesday.
Yet on Twitter, the British Minister for Local Government, Robert Jenrick, assures us that “the tests have started” but that there are still “significant delays”.
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Hundreds of truckers stranded in Dover after discovery of new strain of Covid-19
37,000 contaminations recorded on Tuesday
In the meantime, the drivers are invited to go to the old airport in Manston, Kent, where the screening will be carried out.
This enormous logistical challenge will first be met with the support of the army.
If a driver is positive after a rapid test that delivers a result in about 30 minutes, they will be subjected to a PCR test and placed in hotel isolation for ten days if they are found to be positive again.
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The United Kingdom has one of the heaviest pandemic tolls in Europe, with more than 68,000 deaths and a record of nearly 37,000 infections recorded on Tuesday.