A seaside bingo hall is testing the temperatures of customers as they arrive as a precaution over coronavirus.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Patrick Duffy, 65, managing director of Palace Bingo. Picture: Daniel Hickey.Patrick Duffy, 65, managing director of Palace Bingo. Picture: Daniel Hickey. (Image: Archant)

Visitors to Palace Bingo, on Church Plain in Great Yarmouth, will not be allowed into the club if they have a temperature above 37.4 degrees.

The measures have been in place since Friday (February 28) but staff have not yet had to decline entry to any customers.

Patrick Duffy, 65, managing director, said: "I believe every business has a duty of care, where you bring people in numbers together.

"Particularly in the afternoon, there might be at least 60 to 70 people in, so we do not allow people in that may have a virus."

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Customers at Palace Bingo in Great Yarmouth are having their temperature tested as precaution over the coronavirus. Picture: Daniel Hickey.Customers at Palace Bingo in Great Yarmouth are having their temperature tested as precaution over the coronavirus. Picture: Daniel Hickey. (Image: Archant)

He said anyone with a high temperature would then be alerted to call 111.

Mr Duffy was in Hong Kong in 2003 during the SARS outbreak.

He was also in Singapore a month ago.

"It was big news there. The best hotels were doing temperature checks," he said.

Response to the check has been mostly positive, with only two customers objecting to the test, one of those in Felixstowe.

Mr Duffy said: "People have been very complimentary about it that we are taking the time and trouble to make sure they are safe."

He said the club is now being deep-cleaned every morning.

Brenda Llwellyn, 74, from Great Yarmouth, said the temperature check was a good idea.

"I think it's good because they get a lot of people in here," she said.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the spread of the coronavirus was "likely" to become "more significant" for the UK in the coming days.

He said: "We have also agreed a plan so that if and when it starts to spread, as I'm afraid it looks likely it will, we are in a position to take the steps necessary to... contain the spread of the disease as far as we can, and to protect the most vulnerable.

"We will be announcing that plan not just tomorrow but in the days and weeks ahead as the thing develops," he said.

The number of UK cases climbed to 36 over the weekend, including a patient in Essex who became the second in the country to test positive without having recently travelled abroad.