Coles and Woolworths reintroduce shopping limits after coronavirus spike leads to panic buying in Victoria
Coles and Woolwroths have reintroduced buying limits on products due to a spike in panic buying in Victoria.
Shoppers will once again only be able to buy four packets of toilet paper in supermarkets across the state.
The move comes as concerned residents strip some stores of the essential items as they face the possibility of mandatory lockdown.
A Woolworths spokesman said the company had reimposed a two per-person limit on another of essential items across its Victorian stores on Wednesday afternoon.
The limits apply to toilet paper, hand sanitiser, paper towel, flour, sugar, pasta, mince, UHT milk, eggs and rice. The limits will also apply to online order.
The move is in response to ‘significantly elevated demand seen over the past 24 hours in certain parts of Melbourne’.
On Tuesday, tensions were already on the rise in COVID-19 hot spots from Melbourne’s west to east.
One Brimbank resident told Daily Mail Australia he had heard about people stockpiling again on morning radio and had come down to the shops to grab some rolls before they vanished.
Reports spread quickly that a local shopping centre within the same municipality had already run out of the product.
‘I’m not getting caught out again,’ the man said.
He could later be heard calling family members telling them to stock-up as soon as possible.
Others worried when hoarders might start stockpiling other products.
According to the latest statistics, the Victorian government is mostly concerned about the outbreak of cases in the areas of Hume (17 cases since the start of June), Brimbank (10), Casey (7), Darebin (6), Moreland (6) and Cardinia (6).
More to come