A BURNHAM-ON-SEA pub reopened its doors at the weekend after a customer who was believed to have Covid-19 tested negative.

The Somerset & Dorset pub on the High Street was forced to close on Friday (July 10) after one of its customers tested positive for coronavirus.

The pub became the town's second pub to have to close, after someone who visited The Lighthouse Inn on Super Saturday (July 4) also tested positive for the virus.

But Phil Burke, landlord at The Somerset and Dorset, said the customer's home coronavirus test was "unreliable" and the customer has since been retested and tested negative for the virus.

Phil said: "It was a false positive test. One of our customers did a Covid-19 test at home and tested positive.

"We shut the pub on Thursday (July 8) and all of our staff and the person involved went up to get tested in Weston-super-Mare.

"Our customers were really understanding. All of our staff tested negative as did the person in question. It goes to show that home tests are unreliable as the home test was a false positive.

"We got the tests backs within 24 hours which was great.

"We were told by Public Health England that we could reopen the pub on Friday but we kept the pub closed for another day to give residents peace of mind. We reopened the pub on Saturday (July 11)."

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Phil said there are hand sanitiser stations at the pub which customers are required to use as they enter and leave and staff are giving people the chance to sign up for the NHS Track and Trace service.

"The majority of our customers are being responsible and are abiding by the rules," Phil said.

"But we have got a lot of holidaymakers in town at the moment so we have to remind people of the rules.

"If people do not abide by the guidelines we will tell them to leave.

"We are asking people to use hand sanitiser when they enter and leave and we can help people to sign up for NHS Track and Trace if they want to. We have put measures in place to protect customers."