Coronavirus: Two pubs reopen in Burnham-on-Sea

Two pubs in the same town which closed after customers suspected they had coronavirus have reopened.

The Lighthouse Kitchen Carvery, in Burnham-on-Sea, shut on 6 July and the Somerset and Dorset on Thursday as its landlord wanted to be "cautious".

Jess Green, from the Lighthouse Kitchen Carvery, said they decided it was "better to open on a quieter day".

Somerset Public Health said: "We are all going to have to get used to living with the virus."

Manager Jess Green said: "We were going to open on a Friday and then decided it was probably best to open on a quieter day, so that we could make sure that all our social distancing is adhered to - and people get used to it before the weekend.

"I'd like to think that they'll all come back knowing that everything's in place."

Somerset and Dorset landlord Phil Burke said the customer, who had visited his pub, had tested positive after using a home test but had then tested negative two days later after going to a drive-through testing centre in Weston-super-Mare.

However Trudi Grant, from Somerset Public Health, said: "It would be perfectly normal to see a positive result on a test first and then a few days later, see a negative result.

"That just means that potentially somebody had Covid at the beginning and then a few days later, they're starting to get over the disease.

"We need to make sure we carry on the good practice around infection control, keep our distance, keep washing our hands really frequently."

All staff at both pubs have tested negative for the virus.