Two of Hong Kong’s largest consumer retail chains started rationing some food and drug items to curb panic buying that has plagued the city over the past week amid fears of a citywide lockdown as Covid-19 cases soar.
Supermarket chain ParknShop yesterday announced limits of five items per customer on staples such as rice, canned food and toilet paper while pharmacy Watsons put the same limits on medication for pain, fever and colds.
“Effective today, ParknShop and Watsons Hong Kong will impose purchase restrictions on selected products and medication at all stores,” Watsons said.
On Wednesday, ParknShop announced shorter opening hours, with some of its 200 branches shutting at 3pm local time – by which time many shops across the Asian financial hub have been stripped of fresh and frozen meat and vegetables in recent days.
Hong Kong officials have repeatedly urged people against panic buying this week, saying supplies were adequate.
Amid public complaints of confused official messaging, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said her government had no plan for a “complete lockdown” while it plots compulsory testing of the city’s 7.4 million residents.
Authorities reported a new daily record of 56,827 new infections and 144 deaths on Thursday, an exponential rise from about 100 in early February.
The surge in cases and fears of a lockdown have sparked mass departures of people from the city, where authorities are clinging to a “dynamic zero” policy that seeks to eradicate all outbreaks at all costs. — Reuters
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