British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency committee after France closed its borders to the UK to stem the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus circulating in London and the southeast of England.
The meeting of the COBRA civil contingencies committee later Monday comes amid warnings of “significant disruption” around the ports in the English Channel, with traffic backlogs stretching miles into the southeastern English county of Kent.
Freight transport is facing massive disruptions after France closed its borders for 48 hours, which means lorries cannot get across the English Channel by boat. The government has urged everyone to avoid travelling to Kent, which hosts many of the cross-Channel ports, notably at Dover. Eurotunnel has also suspended services.