Sarah Stanhope, a technician at Rowlands Pharmacy, which is connected to the surgery said: ‘At about 4.45pm a receptionist from the surgery told us we needed to close the shutters to the surgery. They said it was an emergency - and we weren’t told anything else.

‘Our head office had to call up NHS England to find out what was going on. I appreciated they don’t want scaremongering - but we should have been told.‘They said the patient came straight into the surgery - they didn’t come through the pharmacy.’

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Kingston Crescent surgery in Portsmouth has been closed for a deep clean after a patient with suspected coronavirus entered the building Picture: Richard Lemmer

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