A British government minister said he hoped trucks would start crossing into France on Wednesday after Paris lifted its ban on freight coming from Britain because of a new strain of coronavirus.

“Well I hope that this morning, you’ll see people and HGVs crossing the Channel at the short straits,” British housing minister Robert Jenrick told Sky News television.

“We’re putting in place the infrastructure. So the armed forces will be doing that (COVID testing) in the first instance to help us to set that up and to get through some of the backlog that you’ve seen.”

France agreed late on Tuesday to lift its ban and Britain said it would begin handing out tests at multiple locations on Wednesday, but cautioned that the process would take time.

Reuters