A Brighton shop owner has warned customers they must wear face masks and plastic gloves when browsing his store following nearby coronavirus diagnoses.

Chinese shop owner Lai Chen Zhang, 30, put a sign outside Yung Feng Oriental Food Store on London Road explaining the new policy.

Disposable gloves are available at the front of the shop.

Disposable gloves are available at the front of the store. Credit: PA/Adam Cope

“I want to protect my customers and make them feel comfortable,” Mr Zhang told the PA news agency.

Mr Zhang said if the virus is already in the area then the precaution “doesn’t help much”, but he is keeping the policy and added that his Chinese customers have complimented him for the sign.

Asked if other shops should follow his example, Mr Zhang said: “Probably not… I’ve overreacted.

“I wouldn’t like many shops to do the same because this is only making fear and panic.”

Mr Zhang has taken the precaution after seeing that a British man is thought to have been diagnosed in Brighton before being transferred to St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

(Adam Cope)

And a student at Portslade Aldridge Community Academy in Brighton is self-isolating for 14 days, following advice from Public Health England.

Mr Zhang also encouraged the general public to wear face masks.

“Chinese people wear masks for protection of self and to stop passing viruses onto anyone else,” he added.

“But other people think wearing a mask means you are sick. That’s a different thought.”