TELEPHONE and broadband provider Openreach is prioritising essential work in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The focus will be on maintaining connections that support critical national infrastructure, such as the NHS, essential public services, and vulnerable customers.

Engineers will no longer enter premises unless they fit into one of the categories above and, even then, will only enter when they absolutely must. Where possible, repairs will be completed outside.

New services will only be provided where it is possible to do so without going inside unless the service is essential - for example to provide service to a vulnerable customer or critical national infrastructure.

Catherine Colloms from Openreach said: “We hope you can understand why we are introducing these new measures. Our engineers are real people, many with families, and we want to protect them at all times. We are doing our best to balance that responsibility with our responsibility to keep the UK connected.”