As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the UK, supermarkets have experienced increased demand. With the risk of quarantine imminent, many have pointed to online grocery shopping as a solution. However, as Bruno Monteyne, the Senior Analyst for European Food Retail at bank Bernstein, told the BBC’s Today show, this appears to be nothing but a “pipedream”.

He said: “Online grocery shopping will not survive, that’s a pipedream.

“It’s the most inefficient way of getting food to your house, you get someone else to pick and deliver it for you.

“If we’re going to have five to 10 percent labour shortages, it’s much more important that a person fills the shelf than he sits there driving a truck.

“It’s great at this moment, why not enjoy it while it’s there in the early stages.”

Mr Monteyne continued: “If trouble really hits, it’s the most inefficient way of distributing food.

“Supermarkets are prepared for this kind of rush and demand.

“Having been a Tesco supply team director myself, every few years these big companies have held a pandemic exercise.

“We were all trained by the company.”

The senior analyst added: “This is not a matter of if, it is when a pandemic will strike.

“So we were pulled out of our normal jobs to actually go to roleplaying where we had an artificial BBC News telling us what whas happening.

“We would go several phases through all the planning.”

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A total of 35 people have died in the UK after contracting Covid-19.

The number of confirmed UK cases of the virus has reached 1,372.

40,279 people have been tested, according to the latest Department of Health figures.

Almost all of the latest cases were in England.

However 34 new cases were announced in Wales, 32 in Scotland and 11 in Northern Ireland.

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