Consumer and disability rights groups have raised concerns that a number of elderly or disabled people, or those who have an existing illness that puts them at greater risk of contracting coronavirus, were still struggling to purchase groceries.

The government has shared its list of more than 400,000 vulnerable shoppers with supermarket chains including Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

The former has contacted people on that list and has already made deliveries to 300,000 of them as part of broader efforts to ramp up its online capacity.