Shops begin food rationing
SUPERMARKETS have begun rationing food for the first time as a result of coronavirus panic buying.
Tesco is limiting the amount of baked beans, dry pasta and UHT milk its customers can buy to ensure they have enough supply, as its shelves were emptied across Britain.
Yesterday the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Britain rose to 209, with scientists warning diagnoses are doubling every other day.
On its current trajectory, experts fear we could breach 1,500 by the end of the week. Supermarkets have been forced to act after their shelves were plundered again yesterday, with customers reporting shortages of ready meals, toilet roll and paracetamol.
Tesco took the decision to limit some food and drink to five items per customer, in addition to antibacterial gels,
wipes and sprays. A spokesman confirmed the restrictions, which will also limit the amount of Calpol people can purchase, began yesterday, and will apply to online shopping from today.
The shelves of Sainsbury’s and Asda branches were stripped of soap and lavatory paper yesterday, while online hand-sanitiser products were selling for more than 5,000 per cent of their recommended retail price online, with bottles worth 49p selling for £24.99. Further trends of panic buying include sugar, flour, eggs, rice, vitamins, cold and flu tablets and cleaning products.
The Environment Secretary will meet retailers tomorrow to discuss support for vulnerable groups who may be in isolation and any other areas where government can offer support. Another 46 coronavirus cases were confirmed throughout the UK yesterday.
If that continues the number of confirmed infections in the UK could hit 412 by tomorrow and continue to skyrocket thereafter. By next Friday 1,600 people could have the virus and by March 17 the figure could be up to 6,592.
The Sunday Times last night claimed that ministers are preparing for a potential death toll of 100,000.
A source said to be involved in the planning told the paper: “The central estimates of death is about 100,000. Everyone has been focusing on the worst case but this is what the experts actually expect to happen. Some of those people would have died of other flus.” Previous reports had claimed the toll could be as high as 500,000.
Yesterday the chief scientific adviser confirmed the infection was now spreading person to person here, having been initially limited to infections brought in from abroad.
Sir Patrick Vallance said on Friday: “This is the start of an outbreak, clearly. We are in the position now where we have got person-to-person transmission of this in the UK and therefore we can expect more cases.”
Already two people have died from the virus in Britain, a grandfather in his 80s in Milton Keynes and a woman in her 70s in Reading. Last night, the family of the grandfather described the “nightmare” of having to self-isolate themselves, unable to grieve as they would wish to or to arrange a funeral.
Five of the new cases were in the East of England, while Cornwall had its second confirmed case – a resident linked to the first case who had also travelled to northern Italy.
The crisis also forced the cancellation of a marmalade festival in Dalemain, Cumbria, which was expected to attract thousands of international visitors.
Yesterday, Boris Johnson visited Twickenham to watch the Six Nations match with his fiancée Carrie Symonds, having warned earlier in the week that banning large gatherings “wouldn’t work as well as people think”.