ALMOST all visitors to stores in Colchester town centre were found to be wearing masks during a covert investigation by mystery shoppers.

Storecheckers ran a mystery shopper programme to track the wearing of masks in retail centres across the country.

The initial programme in August identified 16 per cent of shoppers and 34 per cent of staff without face coverings.

September’s results showed a rise in no masks to 21 per cent for shoppers and 40 per cent for shopfloor personnel.

In December research took place at 15 locations across in England including in Colchester.

In each town several types of premises were observed including book shops, banks, pharmacies and phone shops.

Colchester came second top of the rankings, with just one person, out of 265 observed, found not wearing a mask inside a shop.

Colchester also had the joint highest Covid safety perception ratings, achieving a near perfect 4.9 out of 5.

Sam Good, manager of Our Colchester Business Improvement District, said: “These results demonstrate a clear correlation to the level of Covid-19 safety measures implemented around the town centre public realm and within business premises and the low levels of Covid-19 infections in Colchester for this period.

“Great praise needs to be given to our residents and workers for their exceptional level of compliance.”

“Despite December being a great trading month for our businesses, the majority of those visiting following social distancing measures and our businesses were excellent in ensuring their visitors had access to hand sanitizers, were wearing masks and were generally complying with Covid restrictions.”

Here are the full results of the December research: