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 One of the first nations to take a hard line in tackling the
epidemic, Australia imposed border controls a month ago on visitors
from the epicenter of the outbreak in China.
However, Australia now has 44 cases, four of them involving people
who caught the disease despite not having left the country.
Despite the few sufferers compared to countries such as Iran and
South Korea, social media has been awash in recent days with
photographs and videos of people stockpiling goods, from staples to
sanitizers.
The demand for toilet paper, in particular, has sparked the trending
hashtags #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis on Twitter, along
with photographs of overloaded shopping trolleys, and calls for calm
from baffled officials.
"We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory
paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn't a
proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time," Chief Medical
Officer Brendan Murphy told a parliamentary panel on Wednesday.
The biggest grocery chain, Woolworths Group Ltd, limited sales to
four packs a shopper, to keep up stock levels while suppliers ramp
up production. The local arm of Costco Wholesale Corp limited buyers
to one bulk buy pack each.
Even Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weighed in on a purchasing
trend that appears to be at odds with other countries' stockpiling
of items with a long shelf-life, such as tinned goods, telling the
public major grocers had assured him they could meet any spike in
demand.
Police confirmed they were called to a supermarket in Sydney to deal
with "a disturbance in an aisle", with media saying the authorities
had cordoned off the toilet paper shelves as a result.
Shoppers have swooped on other products also. Costco has put limits
on purchases of milk, eggs, rice, disinfectants and soap. Weeks ago,
Coles Group Ltd began posting signs in stores warning of shortages
of hand and laundry sanitizer.
Coles said it was working with suppliers and transport partners to
improve availability of popular products, but did not confirm if it
was also rationing sales of some.
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"We have increased deliveries from our distribution centers and our teams are
working hard to fill the shelves," it said in an emailed statement.
German-owned discounter Aldi Inc and U.S.-listed Kimberly-Clark Corp, which
makes toilet paper for the Australian market via domestic units, were not
immediately available for comment.
TRAVEL BANS
While the bulk of Australia's virus victims caught it overseas, the two latest
cases involve people who have not left the country.
The most populous state of New South Wales said a female aged care worker had
caught the virus, which has spread to at least one resident of the center where
she worked.
It said an 82-year-old man was in hospital, while officials await results of a
test on a 95-year-old woman who died on Tuesday after developing a respiratory
illness.
"Whether it was related to coronavirus, we don't know," state health minister
Brad Hazzard told reporters about the death.
State officials were already investigating how a 53-year-old doctor was
stricken, despite having no infected patients. A fourth case, announced on
Monday, involved a woman who could have caught it from her brother.
Since Feb. 1, Australia has banned foreigners who recently traveled through
China, and extended its ban last week to arrivals from Iran, but cautioned it
could no longer guarantee an infected person would not penetrate border checks.
The government on Wednesday confirmed a man who had recently returned from Iran
had caught the virus, prompting officials to order two weeks of self-isolation
for anyone arriving from Iran since Feb. 19.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye and Colin Packham; Editing by Jane Wardell and Clarence
Fernandez)
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