Black Friday will make way for a Mother's Day in mourning for pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants in Atherstone and district after being told by Boris Johnson to 'shut up shop' from tonight in the wake of coronavirus.

Also on the Prime Minister's closure hit list was the town's leisure centre and others throughout North Warwickshire along with local gyms, theatres and cinemas.

The PM was in a much-changed mood of no riggling by announcing at the London press conference the measure would be enforced "strictly".

No doubt the additional 39 UK deaths in a 24-hour period, 17 reportedly in London where the virus is proving more virile, must have weighed heavily on the Government decision.

The death toll is now 177, some 5.6 per cent of the 3,269 cases.

Worldwide there have now been more than 10,000 deaths in just short of 250,000 cases with Spain the fourth country to record more than 1,000 victims of the virus.

Only minutes before the PM's address, Nub News had spoken to a number of local hostelries who were preparing to serve up Mother's Day lunches – even in the face of earlier Government advice which had called on the public to keep its social distance while stopping short of imposing banning measures on the establishments themselves

That all changed just after 5pm today and with schools closing their gates realistically until September at the earliest – the people of Atherstone and its surrounding villages, like the rest of the UK, will be spending most of their waking moments at home in a throwback to a puritan world of the 1600s where outside amusement was outlawed.

Atherstone's old coaching inn – the Red Lion Hotel – will possibly have seen it all before. But its modernised 21st century version certainly won't have done.

It was advertising this afternoon for Sunday lunch "coming out of the kitchen" instead of the usual carvery at a very reasonable price of £14 for two courses.

The premises was planning to serve from 12 noon until 6pm on Sunday.

Walk-ins were welcome but "best to book in advance" was at the time a sensible suggestion – even though it had taken "some cancellations".

Ratcliffe Culey's Gate Inn was also still promising a Mother's Day to remember and, according to assistant manager Kerry Hodgetts, the Blue Lion at Witherley had it covered both ways – sitting down or a takeaway.

It posted on social media plans to "stay open for the foreseeable". Now it is left with a takeaway service only.

After the social entertainment bombshell, Chancellor Rishi Sunak offered workers caught up in the economic maelstrom of coronacvirus some crumbs of comfort.

He announced the historic decision for the Government to offer to pay the wages of people in Atherstone and district caught up in the fallout from coronavirus who face losing their jobs.

A new Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will see up to 80 per cent of salaries covered (up to £2,500 a month) with firms told they don't have to pay VAT until the end of June.

Addressing firms, Mr Johnson added: "We will stand behind you. We hope you will stand behind your workers."

Ahead of the Prime Minister's announcement, experts' advising the Government said social isolation measures will need to be in place for most of a year at least in order to control the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

Scientists also advised ministers that, while the severity of measures could alternate during the period, the "stricter" measures would need to be enforced for at least half of the year.

The Government published the advice on Friday – a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he expects the tide to be turned in the fight against Covid-19 within 12 weeks.

A report by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling states: "It was agreed that the addition of both general social distancing and school closures to case isolation, household isolation and social distancing of vulnerable groups would be likely to control the epidemic when kept in place for a long period.

"It was agreed that a policy of alternating between periods of more and less strict social distancing measures could plausibly be effective at keeping the number of critical care cases within capacity.

"These would need to be in place for at least most of a year. Under such as policy, at least half of the year would be spent under the stricter social distancing measures."

But still the experts said it was "unclear" whether the steps introduced so far would "curtail the epidemic" by stopping its spread.

Separate advice from the Scientific Group on Behaviour and Communications detailed the weight of the pressure on the PM.

The behavioural advisers warned that the household isolation advice and school closures will have greater impacts on poorer families.

"For poorer families, loss of income and increased household bills (heating, electricity, food delivery etc), will occur concurrently with loss of social services provided through schools (free school meals, after school clubs etc)," they said.

On social distancing, the advice suggested that the risk of infection from attending large events is generally no higher than smaller gatherings.

However, family gatherings are considered to be particularly high-risk as they bring people into closer contact – as do religious services with high physical contact.

"Smaller gatherings such as bars and nightclubs are higher risk as you can be in closer contact with others," the scientists said.

"Family gatherings are particularly high-risk as they bring people into closer contact. Similarly, religious services with a high level of physical contact would be higher risk.

"Some activities are higher risk because they are disproportionately depended (on) by older groups."