Coronavirus: The Food Prices Skyrocketed

The Coronavirus caused a huge panic in East Asia. I felt this when I was chatting with my mother about her experience in Hong Kong. She said, "Normally the vegetable prices are around $12 to $16 HKD ($1.54 to $2.05 USD) per pound, now it increases to around $30 HKD (around $3.85 USD) per pound." If food prices skyrocketed in Hong Kong, how about China? When I read the article in Wall Street Journal, the article stated that in one of the supermarkets in Shanghai, the price of lettuce has once rose eight times more than usual prices, and the price of cabbage also rose five times more than usual. This store in Shanghai was then fined two million yuan ($286,000 USD) by the government for gouging food prices. Even though the food prices skyrocketed, it still can't stop the Chinese from buying expensive food. From this incident, I can see the panic among the Chinese when the government is unable to contain the coronavirus. The panic among the Chinese is a tough challenge to the government when coronavirus is still spreading across the country.
Article: Chinese Supermarkets Fined, Warned Against Price Gouging Amid Outbreak - The Wall Street Journal