Hoarding spikes in S’pore amid virus threat

Bloomberg

Singapore authorities urged residents to relax on their shopping sprees that have emptied supermarket shelves, saying supplies aren’t under threat even as response efforts to battle the coronavirus outbreak have escalated.
Pictures circulated online of snaking lines at supermarkets as people snapped up rice, instant noodles, toilet paper and sanitisation products. Online grocers including Amazon.com Inc and Redmart Ltd said they have limited or no delivery slots.
Singapore raised its response level to the virus to Orange on February 7, the same degree as during the SARS epidemic. The designation means the nature of disease is severe and spreads easily from person to person, but is being contained in the city-state, where it hasn’t spread widely.
How Singapore residents react to the virus outbreak “is a major test for our nation,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“There is no need to panic,” he said later. “We are not locking down the city or confining everybody to stay at home. We have ample supplies, so there is no need to stock up with instant noodles, tinned food, or toilet paper, as some people did yesterday.”