Minister suggests HGV drivers may enter France without PCR test
Grant Shapps plays down reports that France will demand more time-consuming test for hauliers.
By Marc Allen, Maritime Direct UK.
The UK transport minister, Grant Shapps, has indicated that UK freight drivers can cross the border into France with a lateral flow test, not the more time-consuming PCR test, reports the Guardian. Mr Shapps said that passengers would still need to obtain a PCR negative-result but hauliers are exempt from the requirement and can use the quicker “red circle” antigen test.
Concerns had been raised that chaos would ensue if hauliers were required to take the PCR tests, as they can take up to 72-hours to return a result.
Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “First of all, no one should be going to France. No one should be travelling. Secondly, we have a particular arrangement with the French regarding the hauliers, this is the lorry drivers, with tests which are called the lateral flow tests. And that remains in place at the moment.”
HGV drivers were banned from crossing the Channel last month after a new Coronavirus variant was discovered in the UK. Asked whether the new Brazilian variant had arrived in Britain, Shapps told Radio 4’s Today Programme: “Not as far as we are aware…”
