Essentials are flying off the shelves. So far, there have been no serious shortages. But experts believe that this is only a matter of time – and that if demand continues like this, we may be a couple of weeks away from supermarkets and manufacturers running out of reserve stock.

“This has become a major issue for businesses,” says Marc-André Kamel, head of the global retail practice and partner at Bain & Company.

He is advising businesses to “put operations in crisis mode – that means stores too” and start calculating how to survive financially to avoid repeating the chaos that already hit China. They need to save cash to adapt to the new financial reality,” he explains.