A PHARMACY in East Dorset has closed public access to its shop temporarily following the increasing number of Covid cases.

Verwood Pharmacy reported that two patients had come into the premises in Lake Road with possible coronavirus symptoms in the past two weeks.

A similar system to the first national lockdown is now in place, with prescriptions available for collection from the rear door of the building in the car park, which is on the same site as The Cranborne Practice,Lake Road Surgery.

In a post on Facebook, a pharmacy spokesperson said: "Due to a second patient coming into the pharmacy with possible Covid symptoms within 2 weeks, as well as the increasing number of cases generally, we will once again be closing the pharmacy shop to customers from today to protect our staff and services.

"Patients will be able to collect prescriptions from the rear door in the car park as during the previous lockdown. Thank you for your support with this."

The move is also to support the accompanying surgery, which is pre-screening all of the patients they see in person to check they do not have Covid symptoms.