Supermarket shelves across the country are looking threadbare as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect supply chains.
618,903 alerts telling people to self-isolate were sent out by the NHS app last week.
It is a record number and the ‘pingdemic’ has had a big impact on the number of products available in supermarkets due to both outbreaks at factories and a shortage of lorry drivers.
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Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted the government is “concerned about supply chains”, with shoppers quickly noticing their favourite items are temporarily not in stock.
To see just how bad the situation is in Leeds, we visited seven major supermarkets across the city to see how they’re faring.
But don’t panic. Supermarkets still have plenty of loo rolls in stock.
Empty shelves at the Waitrose supermarket in Meanwood
(Image: Kristian Johnson / Reach plc)
Perhaps surprisingly, Waitrose seemed to be the worst-affected supermarket of all in Leeds.
There weren’t many customers in the Meanwood store when we visited, but the threadbare fruit and veg section was a telltale sign of just how badly the ‘pingdemic’ has hit the big chains.
The baskets of strawberries and raspberries were practically empty, the melons and pineapples were almost all gone and the salad section was a sorry sight.
Frozen goods appear to have been caught up in the backlog too. Although most of the freezers were roughly half full, one was entirely empty.
LeedsLive reporter Kristian Johnson visited supermarkets across the city to find out how the ‘pingdemic’ has affected them
(Image: Kristian Johnson / Reach plc)
Stocks appeared to be dwindling in the Sainsbury’s superstore in Moortown, too.
Although the situation wasn’t quite as bad here, the fruit and veg aisles were a little sparse, with grapes, oranges, lemons and limes down to the final few boxes.
The Tesco superstore in Seacroft had a similar issue, although it was bananas missing here.
Several items of fruit and veg, most notably bananas, were in very short supply at the Tesco Extra superstore in Seacroft
(Image: Kristian Johnson / Reach plc)
The lack of fresh fruit and veg appears to be a consistent theme right across the city.
Salads, pineapples, melons and cherries were just some of the items that weren’t in stock at the Iceland store at the York Road Centre in Harehills. Every single freezer was packed to the rafters though – a strong sign for the frozen food specialist.
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The Morrisons store in Harehills appears to have got its hands on all the fruit and veg you could possibly need.
It was one of the few stores to have melons and pineapples in stock and you could pick up everything you needed to hit your five-a-day target here.
However, it was the only supermarket we visited that appeared to have problems stocking meat.
Morrisons appeared to be struggling to stock meat
(Image: Kristian Johnson / Reach plc)
Beef, pork and breaded chicken items were almost all out of stock. Certain other chilled items, such as smoothies and milk, were in short supply too.
Budget supermarket Aldi fared incredibly well. The Meanwood store had a plentiful supply of every kind of fruit and veg, the meat aisle was full to the brim and the freezers were well stocked.
Asda also looks to have escaped the pitfalls of the ‘pingdemic’. The Killingbeck store was swarming with shoppers, but that didn’t appear to have presented any problems, with everything in stock.
Aldi was extremely well stocked, despite the ‘pingdemic’ affecting other supermarket’s supply chains
(Image: Kristian Johnson / Reach plc)
Make no mistake, this is nothing like the scenes we saw at the outset of the pandemic, when unruly shoppers stripped the shelves bare of essential items.
The vast majority of products are available and no one appears to be unnecessarily panic buying.
However, with cases rising and restrictions easing, the number of people told to self-isolate could increase even more in the coming weeks.
If it continues to affect supply chains and HGV drivers, your favourite foods might not be in stock for a week or two.
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