As the brutal winter flu season sweeps across the country and Covid cases surge again, Coles and Woolworths are seeing shelves stripped bare of Lemsip.
Most lines of the popular cold and flu hot drink powder are listed as out of stock on the Woolworths website, while Coles shoppers report empty shelves.
Lemsip, manufactured by UK company Reckitt Benckiser, contains paracetamol and phenylephrine and is used for the temporary relief of symptoms of colds and flu, including body aches and pains, sore throat, headache and nasal congestion.
Coles and Woolworths both confirmed they were experiencing shortages.
“With winter well and truly here, we’re seeing increased demand for products that can help ease cold and flu symptoms,” a Coles spokeswoman told news.com.au.
“Unfortunately, we are also currently experiencing supply chain issues for Lemsip, which means customers might not be able to find this product on our shelves. We understand the frustration for customers and are working hard with our supplier to improve availability as quickly as possible.”
Woolworths still has some Lemsip but availability will vary from store to store.
“The early start to the flu season has resulted in higher levels of demand for cold and flu products, such as Lemsip,” a Woolworths spokesman said.
“We’re working closely with suppliers to maintain regular and consistent deliveries of cold and flu stock to supermarkets. We encourage everyone to continue shopping as they normally would and only buy what they need.”
Lemsip is just the latest household staple to be in short supply as a result of winter cold and flu season, with frustrated shoppers taking to social media last month to gripe about the lack of basics on shelves.
“All the local shops are sold out of Lemsip, and the local Woolies is rationing tissues,” one wrote on Twitter.
Another shared the touching note a Woolies worker left in a woman’s online shop when Lemsip couldn’t be fulfilled.
Woolworths said at the time it was working “closely with suppliers” in a bid to rectify the problem.
“Given the recent cold snap and early start to the flu season, there’s quite a lot of demand for a range of medicinal and paper goods products including cold and flu tablets, throat lozenges and tissues,” a spokesperson said.
“While customers might notice that the availability of some of their preferred brands might be limited, we continue to offer a wide range of alternatives across these ranges.”
Coles also confirmed it was experiencing the industry-wide issue.
“Customers may notice that some stores might not have their usual brands of facial tissues in stock at the moment,” a spokesperson said.
“We want to assure customers that there will be enough stock to get them through this flu season. We are encouraging shoppers to be flexible if the products they would usually purchase are not available.”
Shoppers have also reported shortages of other cold and flu products including paracetamol and lozenges.
According to the federal government’s Australian Influenza Surveillance Report, the number of influenza cases has soared past the five-year average since mid-April.
There were 36,719 notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) in the last two weeks of June, and 187,431 total this year.
Since mid-April there have been 1323 hospital admissions due to influenza reported across sentinel hospital sites, 6.5 per cent of which were admitted directly to ICU.
There have been 113 influenza-associated deaths notified to the NNDSS so far this year.
Meanwhile, Covid cases continue to rise, with more than 50,000 in the past 24 hours sparking calls for Australians to return to working from home.
Originally published as Lemsip shortage hits Coles and Woolworths
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