From next week, healthcare staff will be able to shop alongside elderly customers between 8am and 9am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Sainsbury’s said qualifying staff would need to show their pass or ID to be able to enter the store. However, Sir Jeremy Farrar, one of the experts advising the government over the coronavirus pandemic, said these two groups should be separated to protect the most vulnerable.

Speaking this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “I think it would be ideal if they were separated. 

“I have not been in discussion with the supermarket chains but that, for me, would be sensible and logical and I think supermarkets could arrange that.”

Sainsbury’s has also consolidated opening hours for all stores, which will now be open 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday in a bid to get more stock on shelves and ease panic buying. 

Customers have also been asked to stand one meter away from Sainsbury’s workers, and advised to pay with card instead of cash.

In an email to shoppers, Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coup said: “Please treat our colleagues and other customers with kindness and respect. 

“These are unprecedented circumstances and our colleagues are being asked to come to work every day while so many others are being asked to stay at home. 

“We all need them to keep coming to work to feed the nation – a small thank you goes a really long way.”

Supermarkets across the UK have brought in special ‘golden hours’ to help elderly and NHS workers get food as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread.

It comes after critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough, from York, made a tearful plea for shoppers to stop stockpiling, in a video that went viral on Thursday.

In the video, she is seen crying after visiting a supermarket following a 48-hour hospital shift to find there were no fruit or vegetables.

Tesco and Marks & Spencer have announced they will give priority shopping hours to NHS workers.

Tesco announced this hour would also be made available to their own staff.

At Marks & Spencer, the store will be reserved for NHS and emergency workers during the first hour of trading on every Tuesday and Friday morning. Different shopping hours have been given for elderly customers, which will keep the two groups separated.

Most stores have now introduced restrictions on the number of items available to purchase, with most major retailers only allowing shoppers to purchase three of any one item.

READ MORE: SAINSBURY’S IMPOSES NEW SHOPPING RULES FOR THE ELDERLY AMID CORONAVIRUS PANIC BUYING

A cap of two is being imposed on the most popular items, such as toilet roll, soap and long-life milk.

Shoppers have been urged to only buy what they need, as shelves across the country have been stripped bare in the wake of the coronavirus.

Business secretary Alok Sharma said supermarkets were taking “sensible measures” and that he was confident in the “resilience” of the sector.

He told Sky News he understood the “rationale” of people wanting to stock up but said most consumers would be “extremely sensible”.

Mr Sharma added: “As shelves get restocked I’m quite sure people will take the logical steps and actually shop as they would normally shop when they go to do their weekly or daily shop.”

The number of people who have died in the UK after contracting Covid-19 has risen to 177, after England saw 39 more deaths yesterday – the biggest rise in a single day.

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