The Hong Kong SAR government may have much to learn from and some reflection to do on the ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus; one important lesson should be about how to calm people down and dissuade residents from hoarding essential supplies.

About one month ago, a rumor circling WhatsApp chat groups sent the whole city into a panic. The rumor was that Hong Kong would be in short of supply of toilet paper, as most paper manufacturers on the Chinese mainland had yet to resume production.

The rumor seemed to be ridiculous to me at first, until a few hours later, when my friends started to send me pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets across the city and complained that they couldn’t buy any toilet paper.

“This cannot be happening,” I told myself and went straight to a ParknShop nearby, only to find that it was true — there was no toilet paper left. Not only that, there was no kitchen paper, tissue paper, nor napkins, and there was no rice left in the store either.

Empty shelves row by row were the silent witness of people’s panic shopping, and this ridiculous situation went on for at least two weeks. So during those two weeks, on top of being unable to get face masks and disinfection supplies, people in Hong Kong also had to worry about not having any toilet paper and rice.

I went to supermarkets each and every day during that period to try my luck, and I saw elderly people fighting over a pack of rice or several rolls of toilet paper in my neighborhood. It demonstrated how people and society are vulnerable to panicking.

My friends from the mainland found it hard to believe that Hong Kong, the renowned international financial center, would be out of toilet paper, as people are generally very calm on the mainland, including those who were under quarantine in Wuhan, Hubei province; few felt the need to buy up essential supplies.

So I believe one of the lessons here is that the SAR government should send out firm and clear messages to the community as soon as rumors emerge, as Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore did. He issued a television speech to calm  down citizens and ensure them that Singapore has enough supply of essentials after people showed signs of panic due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Another good idea that the SAR government may want to consider is reserving essential items for rainy days like now, including face masks, toilet paper, and rice, among other things. I’ve noticed that local governments on the mainland have been holding press conferences and telling people the quantity of essentials the governments have in reserve, which really has helped calm people and boost their confidence in the governments.

The final lesson is for every resident in Hong Kong. Everyone of us should take a moment and think about how we should react to unverified information, and how we should not cave in to panic. If we had remained calm and reasonable, none of us would have bought hundreds of rolls of toilet paper at one time and left nothing for other people. So during a time of emergency, we should uphold the value of “sharing” things with our neighbors and not fight over resources with each other.

The author is business editor with China Daily Hong Kong.