Eurostar said in a statement: "Following an unprecedented fall in demand across the travel industry, we made some temporary changes to simplify our business. This included the wi-fi connectivity offered on board.”

The virus apparently did not affect those services that Eurostar offered its premium seat customers who got to keep wi-fi access.

No one really explained how COVID-19 had affected providing wi-fi from a track-side network to standard seats but not to premium seats.

A spokesman told the BBC the move had been temporary and wi-fi had now been restored throughout trains.

Mark Jackson, founder of the internet service provider site ISPreview, said the decision to restrict it to premium seats because of the pandemic made "about as much sense as dancing naked on lava".