SouthCoast Shoppers Strip Store Shelves Preparing for Coronavirus

SouthCoast shoppers have been doing quite a bit of shopping over the past several days, stocking up on supplies as the coronavirus begins to infiltrate the United States.

Store shelves have been picked bare of things like anti-bacterial foam soap, bleach, Lysol sanitizing wipes, and more.

We took the photo above at the Walmart in Fairhaven.

We spoke with Dr. Elisiel Lacerda De La Cruz, Infectious Disease Specialist at Southcoast Health. Instead of stocking up on things like toilet paper, the doctor was more interested in things like medication. He suggested making sure you have enough Tylenol, Advil, and cough medicine. Of course, if you are on any kind of prescription medication, it is important to make sure you are supplied enough to get you through several weeks.

We visited Stop & Shop in Fairhaven first thing this morning to see what the store's inventory looked like to begin the day. The store had more stock overall, but still definitely had some bare spots throughout the shelves.

In an effort to make sure supplies can get into the hands of more of their customers, stores like Target have placed a limit on purchasing items like hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes. There have been incidents of online price gouging with people asking up to $50 for a bottle of Purell.

The SouthCoast community's response to the coronavirus hasn't been too different than the way we might respond to a snowstorm that is heading our way. The only difference is that we have no idea if and when our area might be impacted.