A MAN has been charged after a police officer was coughed at by a man claiming to have Coronavirus while responding to an incident in Piccadilly Gardens.

Mateusz Rejewski, of no fixed abode, has been charged with one count of common assault on an emergency service worker and one count of breaching a dispersal notice.

He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on April 28.

Police were responding to an incident in Piccadilly Gardens on the afternoon of March 26 and detained a man for breaching a section 35 dispersal order.

The man then proceeded to cough at the detaining officer while claiming he had got coronavirus.

The officer has since been self-isolating as a precaution.

Meanwhile a boy has been charged after a 66-year-old woman was coughed on and spat at in Tameside.

The boy, who is aged 14 and cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with one count of section 39 assault and will appear at Tameside Youth Court on April 7.

Officers were called shortly before 8.30pm on March 17 to a report that earlier that evening a boy had been coughing and shouting ‘Coronavirus’ at a woman in Ashton-under-Lyne town centre.

A 14-year-old boy was later arrested on suspicion of section 39 assault.