Which supermarkets are opening earlier and when to help elderly access supplies
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SUPERMARKETS including Iceland and Lidl are opening their doors earlier to help elderly customers during the coronavirus outbreak.
It means older shoppers won’t miss out on essentials or risk being caught up in huge crowds stockpiling goods.
Iceland was the first supermarket to confirm the change in hours, prompting calls from customers for other grocers to follow suit.
As well as supermarkets, banks have also started dedicating hours to pensioners.
It comes as cases of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, have jumped to 2,692 in the UK with 137 deaths reported at the time of writing.
Here's everything you need to know.
Lidl: Lidl shops in Ireland allowed only pensioners to shop during the first two hours of service on Tuesday, March 17.
These hours were in force across all 163 shops in Ireland.
However, Lidl confirmed to The Sun that it won't be doing anything similar in England, Scotland and Wales.
From March 23, Sainsbury's customers over the age of 70 and shoppers with a disability will have priority access to online delivery slots.
Meanwhile, Day-Today convenience stores in Scotland have been praised on social media for reportedly looking out for elderly and vulnerable customers.
Shoppers say one Edinburgh store is handing out free COVID-19 "survival packs" including toilet roll, an anti-bacterial handwash, a packet of pocket tissues and one packet of paracetamol.
While others say a Falkirk branch is giving out face masks, anti-bacterial hand gel and cleaning wipes to pensioners.
We've put this to the firm, which has 200 stores around Scotland, and will update this story when we know more.
Supermarket delivery slots are selling out over coronavirus stockpiling with shoppers saying it's "worse than Christmas".
It comes as the major UK grocers begged shoppers to stop coronavirus panic buying or "stock will run out".
Ocado's website went down last week as supermarkets struggle to keep up with stockpilers.