TGI Friday’s announces temporary closure amid Covid-19 virus outbreak

American-style diner TGI Friday’s has announced it is to temporarily close all its UK restaurants from 9pm tomorrow (21 March) amid the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 virus outbreak.

The news follows the government warning the public to practice social distancing to prevent the virus spreading.

TGI released a statement which said this “decisive” action is to protect guests, its teams, communities and its business. It said: Thanks to you for your continued loyal custom, we are a strong, healthy and growing business and look forward to opening our doors and welcoming you back to Fridays in the near future.

“Our teams will be tirelessly working to close our restaurants down in a safe manner whilst complying with our internal Covid-19 contingency plan which includes increased control measures across the board.”

It added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank our teams for their continued professional and hardworking approach. They have come together in extremely difficult circumstances in a way that makes us all tremendously proud to be a part of the Fridays family.

“We will ensure that any stock we can safely distribute will be donated to support our local communities or shared amongst the team, and we will continue to look for ways in which we can help those in need.”

Earlier this week, restaurants such as Qualingos, Prezzo and Bills had temporarily shut its doors as a response to coronavirus.

TGI has not released a date for when it would reopen its restaurants.