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Coronavirus fears see Singapore’s ‘Total Defence’ plan clouded by weekend of total anxiety
- Panic buying of food and toilet paper forces a supermarket to cap purchases, including a S$50 limit on vegetables per customer
- Singapore’s reaction to the outbreak has also called into question the city state’s resilience and social cohesion at a time of increased stress
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The photos began circulating in Singapore on WhatsApp groups and social media from Friday evening, of growing queues at supermarket checkout counters, grocery carts pushed by people in surgical masks piled high with instant noodles and shelves emptied of fresh chicken, pork, rice and toilet paper.
By Saturday morning, online grocery store Redmart had sold out most of its toilet paper and posted a notice saying it had limited delivery slots due to a sudden increase in orders. The website of NTUC Fairprice, Singapore’s largest supermarket chain, went offline temporarily.
Meanwhile, scalpers were reselling items at marked-up prices on mobile marketplace Carousell.
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The public panic fuelled by the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 40,000 people and killed 910, has prompted “zombie apocalypse” jokes on social media. It has also called into question Singapore’s resilience and social cohesion at a time of heightened stress.
What triggered the anxiety was Singapore raising its pandemic preparedness alert level from yellow to orange on Friday evening. The orange alert indicates the spread of the virus is being contained, and was the same alert used in 2009 for the H1N1 flu pandemic. Authorities said it would also have been used in 2003 for the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) had the current alert system been in place.
BRACING FOR THE WORST
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