Coles and Woolworths have reinstated buying limits in Victoria, as panic buyers wipe shelves of stock across the state.

Woolworths has placed a purchase limit of two items on toilet paper, hand sanitiser, paper towel, flour, sugar, pasta, mince, UHT milk, eggs and rice, across all stores.

Coles has not yet confirmed which items are restricted, however, a sign displayed at Craigieburn Coles and shared on Twitter, shows toilet paper limits of four packs per customer.

Managing Director of Woolworths Supermarkets Claire Peters said the move came in response to significantly elevated demand seen over the past 24 hours in certain parts of Melbourne.

“We understand many Victorians are anxious about the recent community outbreak, but they can be assured our stores will remain open with plenty of stock in our warehouses to replenish our shelves.

“While we have healthy stock levels to draw on, we’re taking this precautionary step to help prevent excessive buying and support appropriate social distancing in our Victorian stores.

“We have more than enough product for all of our customers if we all just buy what we need in our weekly shop.

“We’ll closely monitor demand across Victoria in the coming days and look to wind back the limits as soon as we can,” she said.

The second wave of TP hoarding follows a spike in Covid cases in Victoria, which has seen the reintroduction of restrictions in recent days.

The total number of Covid cases in Victoria currently stands at 1,884, with 20 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.