BANGKOK, March 16 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Thais are flocking to nearest supermarkets and grocery stores on to stock up goods and supplies as fear grows that the COVID-19 outbreak will accelerate, following\u00a0a sharp spike in cases in the kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Videos and images of empty shelves, trolleys full of dried food, unusually long queues at supermarket cashiers have been making the rounds on social media, with shoppers sharing their experience at crowded supermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thailand recorded 32 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, the highest single-day rise since the outbreak in January, bringing the total number to 114 in the kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A check at Big C Ekkamai store here saw shoppers, wearing face masks and gloves, pushing their trolleys that are piled with toilet paper, instant noodles, canned and dried food, rice as well as bottled drinks, with the shelves for infant formula and pet food starting to empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 46-year-old housewife, Lalita Saiwan, said she is stocking up essential items and foods as a precautionary measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— MORE <\/p>\n\n\n\n
COVID-THAILAND (PANIC) 2 (LAST) BANGKOK <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone is spending more than normal just to be on the safe side. If the government decides to implement a nationwide lockdown following the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, we have enough food supply,\u201d she told Bernama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A staff at Big C, who declined to to be named, said more people are buying things in bulk, especially bottled water, toilet papers, rice and instant noodles,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany of them filled up the entire trolley. You can see items flying off the shelves faster than we could restock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha advised the public to remain calm and stop the panic buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no need for panic buying. We are not at a stage that needs to stockpile food\u2026please don\u2019t be afraid,\u201d he told reporters yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Linda Khoo Hui Li BANGKOK, March 16 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Thais are flocking to nearest supermarkets and grocery stores on to stock up goods and supplies as fear grows that the COVID-19 outbreak will accelerate, following\u00a0a sharp spike in cases in the kingdom.\u00a0 Videos and images of empty shelves, trolleys full of dried food, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":64285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66006"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}