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Customers will no longer be able to sit and eat in McDonald's restaurants anywhere in the UK during the coronavirus crisis.

The chain has announced that it will only offer takeaway, drive-thru and delivery while the outbreak grips the nation and the world.

All of its outlets in the UK will close their seating areas as of 5am on Wednesday (March 18), reports the Mirror.

A statement from the company said all restaurants across the UK and Ireland will close seating areas and temporarily move to being takeaway and delivery operations only.

All McDelivery orders via Uber Eats and Just Eat will from now on be contact-free, the company's statement continued.

There will be "no physical contact between customers, employees and couriers wherever possible".

The statement continued: "In these unprecedented times, our restaurants will continue to remain open for as long as it is safe to do so."



The company last week announced it would be enhancing its cleaning regimes at its restaurants in order to help reduce the spread of Covid-19.

That included more sanitising of surfaces and its touch-screen ordering tablets, cleaning more regularly using disinfectants, and reminding employees of the importance of constant hand-washing.

The major global fast-food chain's announcement comes after one of the UK's biggest supermarket chains announced it would slash its opening hours.

Tesco warned it will reduce its hours as Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned shoppers about panic buying, in response to stockpiling that has left many of Britain's stores' shelves stripped bare.

The supermarket giant will now open from 6am and 10pm as the UK moves to restrict movement in a bid to control the virus and warns Brits away from mass public gatherings.