Worker douses people entering store as coronavirus panic grips Britain

Customers at a Costco in south London are now being 'disinfected' at the front door as coronavirus fears continue to grip Britain after a woman in her 70s last night became the first patient to die in the UK. 

A second person is feared to have died of the coronavirus in England as officials await test results from a man in his 80s who passed away last night at Milton Keynes Hospital.

Shoppers 'lined up obediently' at the Croydon store's entrance yesterday before being stopped by a staff member to be sprayed with a 'disinfectant-like liquid', the person who filmed the incident told MailOnline. Costco today denied the claims, saying only trolley handles were sprayed – not customers. 

As coronavirus fears take hold in the UK now that 116 people her have been diagnosed and the virus is known to be spreading inside the UK, anxious Britons have resorted to wearing gas masks and blankets on public transport in desperate attempts to protect themselves. 

Meanwhile, supermarkets up and down the country have again been left bare amid rushes to stockpile household goods such as hand soap, nappies and dried foods like pasta and rice. 

Despite the panic surrounding the virus the government has urged people not to bulk buy products, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock vowing that supermarkets would not run out of food and Prime Minister Boris Johnson claiming that it was 'business as usual' after the first confirmed death of a UK patient with the virus.

But customers don't seem to be taking much notice of the reassurances and bosses at online supermarket Ocado told customers they would have to place orders early due to a 'higher than usual demand'. 

Mr Hancock claimed the Government was 'working with the supermarkets' to make sure that people who are told to self-isolate – who must stay at home for at least two weeks – will be able to get regular food deliveries. The Competition & Markets Authority yesterday warned that firms taking advantage of the panic by hiking prices of could be prosecuted or fined.

It comes after officials revealed yesterday that 45 of the UK's coronavirus patients have been sent home and told to stay locked up in their bedrooms for two weeks instead of being kept in hospital. 

And people who die from the coronavirus will not have an inquest into their death, MailOnline understands, with it being classed as a natural death as one from the flu would be.





MailOnline