Covid has claimed another victim with a formerly thriving business in NR3 forced to shut its doors at the end of the month.

Alister Booth took over the Norfolk Clinic Osteopath in Magdalen Road in 2015 after it was co-founded by his father, Martin Booth, in 1982.

But although the business was the first of its kind in East Anglia the pandemic showed the company no mercy and will close on January 31.

Mr Booth said: "The business has been in the family from before I was born and helped so many people.

"We've been able to develop the site since then. We added more therapy such as acupuncture, massage rooms and a yoga studio."

The 39-year-old from Hellesdon said: "It started off just working from home throughout the first lockdown.

"But then with the new rules which came into play the costs started to mount up.

"From purchasing more materials to following such strict cleaning processes, keeping up social distancing between the public and our staff, to leaving treatment rooms for twenty minutes after each session.

"It took its toll."

Five people will lose their jobs as a result of the business going bust.

A further ten practitioners will have to find a new venue to run their services out of with another five instructors looking for a new place to work.

Mr Booth said: "It's incredibly sad and disappointing but it's the only option we have now.

"The pandemic was expensive. We had to purchase full PPE, extra fans and new windows for ventilation and get plastic screens set up.

"Plus we had less patients being allowed in and more outgoings. You can't keep up with it all and things start to dry up."

With the business being closed for long periods of time, having limited staff come back and continuously increasing expenses, Mr Booth lost around £60,000 due to the pandemic.

Thankfully Mr Booth will be able to keep seeing clients having joined the team at the Osteopathic Consultancy.

He said: "The main thing we want to communicate is what has happened and where we've moved to - so far we've received so many heart-warming responses from clients to the e-mail we sent out."