Customers in pubs across the country were asked for contact information before they could enter, to help find contacts if it was later discovered that someone had the virus.
Now at least three venues had to close, after some customers tested Covid-19 positively after a weekend visit.
A post on the Facebook page of a Fox and Hounds pub in Batley, in the north of England, said a customer – who was on the premises on Saturday – called on Monday to say he was positive for coronavirus.
“During the visit, they were unconscious (sic) and had no symptoms,” the post added.
“This is not a message we wanted to write so quickly, but the Lighthouse will be closed due to positive user testing,” a pub in Burnham-on-Seau, in the south-west of England, adds on social media.
Both pubs said their employees were being tested.
Pubs were allowed to open in England on Saturday, for the first time in three months.
Third place, Village Home Pub, in the south of England, said it hoped to reopen on Saturday after a customer tested the positivity.
“Anyone who has been in a beer over the weekend has no need for isolation unless he shows symptoms or is directly contacted by a trace group,” he told customers on social media. The English track operation is still not working at full capacity.
Pubs had to pursue social distance and limit the number of attendees in order to reopen, but many Britons, regardless of their locals, left regardless of their residents.
“Predicted a busy night and confirmed what we knew, alcohol and social distance are not a good combination,” tweeted John Apter, the national president of the Police Alliance on Sunday.
Apter, who was on duty in the southern English city of Southampton on Saturday night, said he and colleagues faced “happy drunks, rabid drunks, fights” and antisocial behavior. “What was crystal clear was that drunk people can’t / won’t distance themselves socially,” he said.
Five pubs in Nottinghamshire, in the English East Midlands region, decided to close early after antisocial behavior, police said over the weekend, and officers made four arrests after reports of a broken window and a minor attack.
However, Inspector Craig Berry thanked “the majority of the public who acted responsibly all Saturday”.
Many places have instead chosen to stay closed, explaining that they cannot ensure that it would be safe to welcome a drink again. Pubs in Scotland and Wales have to wait again later this month.
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