Garden centre reopens following deep clean after after 'suspected' coronavirus case

East Durham Garden Centre, on South Hetton Road, Easington, confirmed in a statement on its Facebook page on Friday, August 28, that the premises was closed.

At that stage, it was not known when the garden centre and its restaurant will reopen to the public.

The statement said: “We apologise for any inconvenience but due to a suspected positive Covid-19 test we are currently closed in order to undertake a full and comprehensive, deep clean of our garden centre and restaurant.

"Thank you for your understanding at this time.”

Under the Goverment’s guidance, garden centres were permitted to reopen for the first time on Wednesday, May 13 after weeks of closure due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The business later issued an update, explaining shoppers would be able to call in again as it opened for trade today, Saturday, August 29.

It said: “We have now completed a thorough deep clean of the centre and are pleased to confirm that we will be open as usual from Saturday.

“All visitor information has been passed to the NHS and they are contacting relevant visitors through the Test and Trace system.

“We all look forward to seeing you soon.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson first imposed lockdown restrictions on Monday, March 23, in a televised address to the nation.

These guidelines have been consistently reviewed by the Government since their implementation and their most recent easing enabled the opening of bowling alleys and casinos, as well as permitting close-contact facial treatments to resume, on Saturday, August 15.

According to the latest figures released by Public Health England on Thursday, August 27, there have been 3,482 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in County Durham.

This is the highest number across the North East’s 12 local authority areas, with eleven of these cases announced on Thursday.

Darlington has the lowest number with 619 confirmed cases.

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