An appeal has gone out to people who live and socialise in Ilkeston to get tested if they have coronavirus symptoms – even if they are mild.

It follows confirmation that 4 people who visited some of the town’s pubs on either Friday 31 July or Saturday 1 August tested positive for the virus.

Each visited at least 1 of 3 pubs centred around the town’s Market Place – The Market Inn, The Observatory (Wetherspoons) and The Harrow – but the longest period was spent in The Market Inn on the Saturday evening.

Steps had been taken by all 3 venues to restrict the number of customers in the building at any one time, collect customer contact details and carry out additional cleaning.

But when Public Health England staff began to look at the contact details for customers who visited The Market Inn, it became clear that despite the best efforts of the landlord, a significant number of customers had left incomplete or illegible details making contact tracing almost impossible.