Get the latest on coronavirus. Sign up to the Daily Brief for news, explainers, how-tos, opinion and more.

A government minister has urged the reopening of some restaurant take away services, saying “a McDonalds drive-though is made for the social-distancing situation we are in”.

Speaking at the the daily No.10 press briefing on Friday, environment secretary George Eustice said he had been in touch with “food-to-go outlets” about how they could serve the public safely while lockdown measures are in place.

Many restaurants including McDonalds and KFC chose to close all their stores despite being exempt from the government’s lockdown rules.

Eustice said: “It is the case that when we originally did the lockdown, we were quite explicit that it didn’t cover take away food. While clearly restaurants and pubs had to close, we were quite keen to keep capacity.” 

He suggested reduced footfall in town centres, staff anxiety and a sense of what was “socially acceptable” given the stay-at-home message had led to places such as McDonald’s and KFC closing.

He added: “I think it is quite possible for these venues to reopen and reopen safely, we never mandated that they should close.

“We have learned a lot from supermarkets and other food outlets about how you can do social distancing and do it well.

“I think some of those food-to-go businesses will probably be seeking to learn lessons from what supermarkets have done as they consider tentatively reopening.”

McDonald’s has unveiled the location of the 15 restaurants it plans to reopen for deliveries next week, after the fast food chain closed all its sites in March at the start of the coronavirus lockdown.

The stores, which are clustered around London and the South East, will offer a limited menu, including some vegetarian options, delivered within their local areas.

KFC, which has over 900 sites nationwide and employs around 24,000 people, shut all its restaurants last month due to the coronavirus lockdown.

It said last week it would reopen an additional 80 restaurants across the UK taking its total to 100 by last Monday.