As shops around Australia continue to sell out of toilet paper, residents of a Queensland community have been reminded not to flush wet wipes down the toilet with city officials saying the sewerage system is not equipped to deal with them.
There have been manic scenes inside shopping centers across the country as shoppers rush to panic buy toilet paper amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has so far infected more than 75 Australians.
Some large retail chains have had to limit the number of packs sold to each customer to four, while at one supermarket police tasered a customer after a fight broke out over quickly dwindling stocks.
Fights over Toilet Rolls in AustraliaNaturally, no-one believes that toilet paper will provide them with any kind of special protection against the coronavirus. However, faced with the prospect of self-isolation and being directed to stay home for an extended period of time, no-one wants to run out of the essentials.
City of Gold Coast shared an image on Friday showing a giant clump of wet wipes that had built up in an underground pipe after hundreds were flushed down the toilet.
Council requested that locals not deposit wipes in the toilet, even if packaging on products claimed it to be “flushable”.
On Saturday, inside a Melbourne Woolworths supermarket, canned goods and other food items remained in stock while toilet paper shelves were completely bare, despite the store rationing the number each shopper could buy.
Australia is not the only country to have seen panic buying as the virus continues to spread. Japan has also seen a rush on toilet paper, while in France and the US consumers have been scrambling to get hold of food staples such as rice and pasta.
Beginning in February, the Australian Department of Health has steadily increased restrictions on travellers returning from mainland China, Iran and South Korea – the countries worst hit by COVID-19 – with returnees required to “self isolate” for 14 days and seek medical attention if any symptoms appear.
The same applies to anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person, the department advises on its website.
The hashtags #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis have been trending since Wednesday, while regional newspaper NT News even printed Thursday’s edition with toilet paper sheets as a pull-out center spread.
