One store from a British supermarket chain in Northern Ireland will be setting aside an hour to open exclusively for the elderly amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement from the store.
Taking to social media, Kennedy Centre, West Belfast, announced that from Tuesday, 17 March, only the elderly would be allowed inside its Iceland store between 8 am and 9 am.
Here is the statement from the shopping center in full:
"Iceland Foods at Kennedy Centre will be opening their store between 8-9am for the elderly commencing Tuesday 17th March. Could the wider public please respect this hour, and understand that this time is allocated for elderly people only. Iceland appeal to people's better nature when realising who needs priority."
This comes after news emerged that shoppers across much of the United Kingdom have started panic-buying due to fears over the coronavirus, leaving many supermarket shelves completely bare.
So severe is the situation that the British Retail Consortium (BRC), a trade association for all UK retailers, said that several retailers in the country had come together make a joint appeal to customers to refrain from buying more than they need.
Related - Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson's son speaks out after his parents test positive for coronavirus:The following supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Coop, Waitrose, M&S, Iceland, Ocado, and Costcutter, signed the appeal, which was published in adverts in national newspapers yesterday.
It reads:
"We understand your concerns but buying more than is needed can sometimes mean that others will be left without. There is enough for everyone if we all work together."
The UK's Health Secretary Matt Hancock echoed these sentiments, saying on BBC's Andrew Marr show: "If you are buying food for instance and loo roll you buy what you need, because there’s an impact on others."
In a report from the World Health Organization last Wednesday (11 March), WHO declared that the COVID-19 outbreak is now being officially recognized as a pandemic:
"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.
We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death."
At the time of writing (March 16), there have been 152,428 cases of coronavirus and 5,720 deaths from the disease worldwide.