Long lines of queues at McDonalds in Sudbury as food chain set to close branches across UK during coronavirus outbreak

Customers have been waiting in long lines of queues at McDonalds in Sudbury after the fast food chain announced it would be closing all its restaurants and drive thrus in the UK in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

All branches in the UK will close tonight (Monday) at 7pm until the foreseeable future.

The decision was made after it was deemed that social distancing could no longer be safety maintained.

Paul Pomroy, chief executive officer, of McDonald’s UK & Ireland said: “We have not taken this decision lightly and know that our restaurants have been playing an important role in the community providing hundreds of thousands of free drinks to frontline health and social workers and emergency services personnel.

“But I have been clear throughout this that we would only continue to operate whilst it was safe for our people and together with our franchisees - we feel now is the time to make this decision to temporarily close.”

The fastfood chain said it work closely with community groups, while ensuring frontline health staff and emergency services workers were provided with complimentary food or drink.

Mr Pomroy added: “I want to thank every single one of our 135,000 employees. I am so proud of them all for adapting so quickly to a constantly evolving work environment, taking every step to keep our customers, couriers and teams safe and looking after each other so very well.”