Queues outside Boots and silence at the seafront - day one of the lockdown in South Shields

Around 20 people were waiting patiently in an orderly and socially-distanced line outside the company’s King Street branch.

In line with Government guidelines following the spread of coronavirus, Boots is restricting the number of customers in its stores at any one time.

Catering for a medical need is one of the permitted reasons people are allowed out under emergency restrictions introduced on Monday night.

Barclays Bank, one of the few other businesses still open in King Street, was operating a similar queuing system on Tuesday morning.

The majority of other premises in King Street and surrounding streets, however, were closed following Prime Miniser Boris Johnson’s warning that people will only be allowed out for “very limited purposes”.

Elsewhere across the South Tyneside borough, customer numbers at Asda’s East Boldon supermarket appeared to be at normal levels compared to recent panic surges.

Sandhaven Beach, in South Shields, was also quiet with all cafes and takeaways closed and only the occasional dog walker taking advantage of the mild early-spring weather.

As well as Mr Johnson’s lockdown announcement, Monday saw NHS England confirm that two deaths had been reported in hospitals run by Sunderland and South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust has yet to say at which hospitals the deaths took place or where the casualties were from.

Public Health England’s nationwide figures indicated that 335 people had died due to the virus by Monday with 6,650 cases recorded so far.