Fear and Loathing in the Garden of England

Kent has real problems as it houses the port of Dover and the Eurotunnel. These are linked to Calais (in France), respectively by ferry services and the Eurostar train. Rather obviously, these services are much used by drivers and their trucks, moving material (including perishable foods), between the continent and the UK. The recent discovery of a new, more easily-transmitted variant of Sars-CoV-2 in SE England (including Kent), initially led the French authorities banning truckers crossing from Kent to Calais. This was an understandable (but probably futile-see later) attempt to stop the new variant of the virus being imported into France. There are reported to be around 10,000 trucks, with their drivers, parked along the M2 motorway in Kent and on an old airfield. Some truckers have now spent several nights in their cabs and there are few/no facilities in place for these folk. It's consequently unsurprising that some truckers are somewhat livid and tensions are rising (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/lorry-drivers-clash-police-tensions-rise-over-queues-kent). The French authorities have subsequently agreed to allow truckers to travel into France, once they have had a negative test for the virus. Testing locations are be set up and operated but it will take quite some time the clear the backlog. The UK proposes to use the rapid lateral flow test, which takes about 20-30 minutes per sample. This screening method has been piloted in 'test and trace' in Liverpool, as well as being given by UK universities to their students, prior to their return home for Christmas. The trouble is, that this test yields a lot of false positives and false negatives. The test is hardly going to be the basis of an effective cordon sanitaire! Have virus gonna travel?