Stars and Stripes is making this story and other coverage of the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other stories here, and sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here.

Military commissaries worldwide will check the IDs of authorized customers at the entrance and revoking policies allowing visitors in response to coronavirus-related crowding concerns, commissary officials said Wednesday.

Stores will also eliminate the “early bird” shopping hour in order to allow more time for cleaning and restocking, the Defense Commissary Agency said on its website.

The agency said it believes the ID checks and visitor restrictions “will reduce the number of people in our stores and help with social distancing.”

The agency also said individual commissaries may also need to limit purchase quantities of some products. Restrictions on hand sanitizers and other products have been ongoing for weeks at stores overseas.

“We are increasing deliveries to our overseas commissaries, including shipments of high demand items such as hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes,” the agency said on its website. “We have airlifted multiple shipments to the Pacific on high-demand items to supplement the stock in our central distribution centers and support to our stores.”

Shelves at a number of commissaries in Germany and elsewhere have run short on disinfectants and toilet paper, as well as some foods like rice and meat.

news@stripes.comTwitter: @starsandstripes

Migrated