UK PM Hopes for Quick Resolution to Border Closure on COVID Concerns

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the evening of Dec. 21 that he hopes the closure of the U.K.-France border to truck cargo can be resolved in the “next few hours,” according to a report from Reuters. But as of press time, the border was still shut, after French President Emmanuel Macron closed it at 11 p.m. London time on Dec. 20 to help prevent the spread of a new, potentially more contagious strain of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 that recently was discovered in the U.K. In a statement on Dec. 21, Johnson said the delays only affect human-handled freight at the port at Dover, which is “only 20 per cent of the total arriving from or departing to the European continent.”