Johor Baru – While there has been a shopping frenzy in Singapore since Friday (Feb 7), Singapore-registered cars have also been seen outside malls in Johor Baru.
The panic buying occurred after the Ministry of Health raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from yellow to orange due to the appearance of more cases with no known links to earlier cases of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
In Singapore, the people snapped up rice, noodles, toiletries, tinned goods and even toilet paper. The usually well-stocked shelves of various supermarkets began to look empty by nightfall.
The Group CEO of NTUC Enterprise, Mr Seah Kian Peng, gave the assurance that there were enough stocks available and that there was not need to rush for supplies.
The shelves have been replenished overnight on Friday and Saturday but the buying has continued. On Sunday (Feb 9), NTUC FairPrice imposed some limits on the purchase of some essential items. From that day, each customer would only be allowed to buy four packs of paper products, two bags of rice and four bundle packs of instant noodles.
Earlier, on the TikTok social media platform on Saturday (Feb 8), a video poked some fun at the situation in Singapore. The creator, Tawfik Daud, who is believed to be a Singaporean, went to a Kuala Lumpur supermarket as his setting for the short video.
With the Justin Bieber song Yummy in the background, the 11-second Tik-Tok video began with Tawfik highlighting a fully-stocked noodle and rice area. It had the phrases “KL so calm”, and “The grass is greener on the other side”.
“If not enough, come to KL”, noted another caption as the TikToker swirled around a full aisle of chips. “Don’t worry still got stock.”
The video, on Tawfik’s Facebook account with the heading, “Meanwhile in KL …”, has had more than 14,000 shares.
Watch the video below:
Meanwhile in KL…
Posted by Tawfik Daud on Saturday, February 8, 2020
On Saturday (Feb 8), Singapore-registered cars were seen parked at the Aeon Mall Bukit Indah in Johor Bahru at 11 am. Facebook user Carmen Chew, a Malaysian, shared a post of the encounter with the caption, “???才刚刚开门” (???Mall has just opened).
The post included photos of people wearing face masks forming long queues to purchase daily essentials in bulk. The mall is 25 minutes from Causeway by car. /TISG
???才刚刚开门
Posted by Carmen Chew on Friday, February 7, 2020
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