Coronavirus: Australian newspaper comes up blank pages to end toilet paper scarcity

In an attempt tackle the toilet paper shortage resulted due to panicked customers buying them in bulk fearing that supermarkets would run out of them because of the spread of coronavirus, an Australian newspaper has come up with a creative solution.

According to media reports, the news paper, NT News, had an eight-page blank pullout on Thursday. The blank pages came with a cut-out lines and watermarks.

A video that has gone viral showed a person flipping through the newspaper to find the blank pages, completed with cut-lines. “Run out of loo paper? The NT News cares,” the news paper had said in the front page. “"That's why we've printed an eight-page special lift-out inside, complete with handy cut lines, for you to use in an emergency,” it further read.

According to CNN, Australians are buying toilet paper in such huge quantities that supermarkets are running out of them. This has led to one of the supermarkets imposing restriction on the number of the toilet paper packets a customer could buy.

Matt Williams, editor of NT News, told Guardian Australia that the move to come out with blank pages was "certainly not a crappy edition."

Meanwhile, the Australian government announced that it would spend one billion dollars to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus as the cases of the deadly infection in the country touched 61 on Friday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said more funds would be released from the federal government coffers as necessary.

—With agency inputs