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Coronation Street and Emmerdale will both feature references to public health advice amid the coronavirus outbreak, ITV has confirmed.

Both soaps will include scenes relating to preventing the spread of Covid-19, most pressingly the importance of people washing their hands regularly.

An ITV spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “Because we script and shoot so far in advance we don’t generally reflect contemporary issues.

“However we are going to use the soaps to remind people of important public health issues such as the need to wash their hands.”

They added: “We’ll try and do more such messages going forward.” 

During Monday night’s episode of Coronation Street, a character will be seen washing their hands while singing Happy Birthday To You.

However, it was pointed out that this scene is actually just a coincidence, as it was written last year, long before the coronavirus outbreak, and filmed in January.

In the last few weeks, the virus has impacted the TV industry in big ways, with shows like Peaky Blinders and Line Of Duty halting production in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Loose Women began filming without a studio audience on Monday, following Channel 5’s decision for Jeremy Vine’s panel show to do the same, while Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway has had to abandon plans to film their series finale at Disneyland.

A number of US chat shows have been suspended completely to protect studio staff, including Ellen Degeneres’ talk show and The Late, Late Show with James Corden. 

Meanwhile, the BBC has said it is keeping the situation with its audience-based programmes “under review”.