(CNN)Masks were the first to go. Then, hand sanitizers.
Now, novel coronavirus panic buyers are snatching up … toilet paper?
Retailers in the US and Canada have started limiting the number of toilet paper packs customers can buy in one trip. Some supermarkets in the UK are sold out. Grocery stores in Australia have hired security guards to patrol customers.
But now the coronavirus has been found in the one place people never expected, toilet paper.
An estimated 6000 more people have contracted the virus in the United States tied to a contamination of toilet paper. Testing buy Washington State Health department confirmed the COVID-19 virus particles were present in the samples they took from five separate packages of toilet paper from Big Box stores. The CDC said this strain of deadly virus “breeds rapidly in tissue fibers.”
The CDC is urging people to using a wet washcloth when cleaning themselves after using the bathroom instead of toilet paper.
“Use a washcloth to clean yourself after you go to the bathroom, it’s not a big deal, that’s what we did back in the old days,” said Peter Lendl, who headed the investigation of the contaminated toilet paper. “Just know which one is yours.”
State Health departments are asking you to set your toilet paper outside so hazmat workers can come by and dispose of the contaminated items.
“We all need to work together,” said Peter. “We need each other as a community, as a society.”
Stores have been ordered to halt all sales of toilet paper until further notice. Toilet paper factories are being shut down while sanitation measures are being taken.