London, Fast-food giant McDonald's revealed a plan to open all of its drive-thru restaurants in the UK in the coming weeks and has"not forgotten" about people in the north of England, it was reported on Monday.

The company reopened 39 restaurants in England and Ireland last week as it prepared to get back up and running with new safety measures in place, but all of the English locations were in the south east, reports the Metro nwespaper.

In a message to customers, McDonald's Chief Executive Paul Pomroy said: "To help us test the new procedures and to slowly restart our supply chain, the pilot restaurants in the UK are all located close to our head office and to one of our distribution centres in the south east.

"I promise I have not forgotten about any part of the UK or Ireland. We are taking our time to test the new ways of working in our restaurants, ensuring that we can continue to help our teams to work safely, and to get back to the communities we have proudly served for so many years."

Pomroy further said that McDonald's will make a further announcement this week about reopening more restaurants and expanding its delivery service.

Last week, Police were called to a drive-thru McDonald's in Peterborough on the first day it reopened after easing of the COVID-19 lockdown because the queue at the outlet went out of hand.

Six of the 30 new drive-thrus that have opened across the country were in Peterborough.

The fast-food giant has brought in social distancing measures to keep workers safe, with staff receiving temperature checks before each shift.

The number of workers on each site will be reduced to ensure safety, the company has said.