On Christmas Day in 2020, 1,100 military personnel were deployed to deliver COVID-19 testing kits to around 4,000 hauliers waiting in Kent after France closed its border with the UK due to COVID-19. They worked alongside military personnel from Poland, as well as French firefighters. Under the operational code-name Operation Rose, the British units involved included 70 Gurkha Field Squadron, 36 Engineer Regiment from the British Army and No. 600 Squadron RAF from the RAF. In the days following, the government announced that the military would be assisting with the testing of secondary school pupils and college students in England, however schools and colleges were soon re-closed as the country entered another national lockdown in January 2021.
