A Colchester pub has been forced to close for more than a week after staff were hit by the 'pingdemic'. 

The Rovers Tye in Ipswich Road has closed to customers are a number of the team were told to self-isolate. 

In a post to customers on their Facebook page the team said safety was their number onw priority. 

The post said: "Due to a large number of the team being told to self-isolate it is leaving us short staffed to run the pub safely.

"We have made the decision to unfortunately close

"We will be doing a full deep clean of the premises over the next few days

"We are very sorry for those who had plans to come down but safety is our number one priority.

"We will be re-opening on Sunday August 1. Thank you & see you all soon."

Read more >> The part of Colchester where the Covid rate is almost double the Essex average

With case numbers rising sharply in England as restrictions are lifted, the country has seen what has been dubbed as a “pingdemic”, with hundreds of thousands of people told to stay at home after being deemed to have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19.

It means many small businesses are having to close completely, while even larger companies are affected – pub chain Greene King, which runs the Rovers Tye, has shut 33 pubs in the last week, and PureGym said up to 25 per cent of staff are isolating in some areas.

A record 618,903 alerts were sent to users of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales in the week to July 14, telling them they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus, NHS figures show.