U.S. agency warns that truckers' protest could disrupt Super Bowl - CNN

[February 10, 2022]  (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned law enforcement agencies that a convoy of truckers protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates could affect this weekend's Super Bowl in Los Angeles, CNN reported.

The DHS had issued a bulletin to authorities across the United States saying it "has received reports of truck drivers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the U.S. in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers", CNN said on Wednesday.

The convoy will likely begin in California as early as mid-February and arrive in Washington as late as mid-March, CNN cited the agency as saying.

It could have an impact on the Super Bowl on Sunday and the State of the Union Address, which President Joe Biden will give in Washington on March 1, CNN added.

A DHS spokesperson told CNN that the department did not observe specific calls for violence associated with this convoy.

Protestors block the last entrance to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, effectively shutting it down as truckers and their supporters continue to protest against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada February 9, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

The DHS did not immediately respond to request for comment late on Wednesday.

Canadian truckers have been protesting for nearly two weeks against pandemic mandates and other restrictions, blocking two border crossings with the United States.

Many pandemic-weary Western countries will soon mark two years of restrictions as copycat protests spread to Australia, New Zealand and France now that the highly infectious Omicron variant is easing in some places.

(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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