Doncaster businesses 'not heavily affected by coronavirus outbreak,' say bosses

The UK has had over 300 confirmed cases and six deaths but no confirmed reports in Doncaster.

Incidents of people panic buying items such as hand sanitiser, hand wash, pasta and toilet roll were raised by elected members.

Chris Dungworth, head of Business Doncaster, said there was little intelligence that businesses had been hit hard but added they were keeping a watchful eye over the situation.

He told councillors that a team to help businesses will be mobilised if the situation deteriorates. A similar task force was set up in the aftermath of the November floods.

“In terms of effects on business, we are well briefed on this and are waiting on Government instructions,” Mr Dungworth said.

“We’ve had no intelligence so far from the Doncaster business community that it’s been heavily affected and we’re keeping a close eye on it.

“If it does come to the point where we do have to pick up and support businesses then we will mobilise a team to do that as we did during the floods back in November.

“We work closely with larger companies - none of which have come through to us and have identified issues at the moment. Possibly this may happen longer term - we’ve seen reports in the press on issues getting goods into the country.”