The country is starting to shut down in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 

So we've put together a guide to tell you how major retail chains are reacting to the coronavirus crisis. 

Primark has closed stores in France, Spain and Austria which account for nearly a third of its sales.

However, the stores on Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street in Glasgow remain open at the time of writing. 

Tesco has had to bring in purchasing restrictions to curb panic buying, particularly on anti-bacterial wipes, dried pasta and toilet roll.

It was forced to take its mobile app offline temporarily due to high demand on Tuesday, and also announced it would be reducing the hours of all of its 24-hour stores to 6am to 10pm.

The Herald:

A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We are changing these store hours to ensure we can serve customers better at this time.

"It gives our colleagues the time overnight to restock the store, replenish the shelves and support our online grocery service at a time when demand is high.”

Sainsbury's has announced that its stores will now operate elderly-only shopping sessions. 

All its stores will only open to old and vulnerable people for the first hour of trading on Thursday, chief executive Mike Coupe said, but will open for an hour longer so other shoppers do not miss out.

Sainsbury’s has now said customers over 70 and those with a disability will also have priority access to online delivery slots from Monday and the chain is also expanding its “click and collect” service.

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As of Thursday, Sainsbury’s will be closing its cafes and its meat, fish and pizza counters to free up freight capacity for essential products.

Customers will also only be able to buy a maximum of three of any grocery product and a maximum of two on the most popular items such as toilet roll, soap and UHT milk from Wednesday onward.

Iceland outlets across the country have also introduced reserved time slots to give the vulnerable and the elderly a chance to shop in store.

Supermarkets are limiting the number of items people can buy to ease stockpiling pressure amid the Covid-19 outbreak, as stores also roll out measures to help elderly and vulnerable shoppers.

Sainsbury’s revealed it will only allow customers to buy a maximum of three of any single item, while Morrisons said it is limiting purchases across 1,250 lines.

Asda also announced it is restricting shoppers to three items on all food and closing its cafes and pizza counters, while temporarily reducing the opening hours of all its 24-hour stores for re-stocking.

Aldi has already introduced limits of four items per shopper across all products.

Morrisons announced on Tuesday it is creating 3,500 jobs to expand its home delivery service to cope with demand.

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Marks and Spencer has launched a "contact-free delivery experience" for all clothing, home, flowers, hampers and wine orders.

"This gives the option of no hand to hand contact and the driver can leave the delivery safely at your door," it wrote.

Apple has closed all its stores in the UK. 

In a statement, CEO Tim Cook wrote: "We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27." 

He added: "There is no mistaking the challenge of this moment. The entire Apple family is indebted to the heroic first responders, doctors, nurses, researchers, public health experts and public servants globally who have given every ounce of their spirit to help the world meet this moment.

"We do not yet know with certainty when the greatest risk will be behind us."