Japanese officials Friday tried to dispel rumors of a toilet paper shortage amid the coronavirus outbreak – and urged people to quit stockpiling rolls, Japanese news outlet NKH reported.

The pushback follows last week’s rush to stores by Japanese shoppers to snap up rolls amid reports the raw materials needed to make the paper couldn’t be imported from coronavirus-plagued China.

 “That’s fake news,” one manufacturer told the Global Times. “[Our] supplies have nothing to do with China.”

The company told the Global Times all paper production in Japan is carried out domestically, with 70% of raw materials required for Japan's toilet paper production derived from recyclables, and 30% from wood imported from overseas. Raw materials from China only make up 2% of the overall total.

Hoarding by the public may lead to a supply shortage temporarily, the news outlet noted, but production among the country's manufacturers is continuing.

In Hong Kong, armed robbers reportedly held up a delivery driver last week and stole hundreds of rolls of toilet paper as the city faced a shortage, the BBC reported.

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