The elderly and vulnerable are being forced into supermarkets because of the pressure on online deliveries.

Despite Government telling people not to go out, Tesco is asking those who can, to shop in-store and leave delivery slots for those unable to get out.

In the meantime, however, the situation is reaching crisis point.

The company apologised for inconvenience in what a spokesman described as “challenging times.”

Asda has announced that it is looking to recruit 5,000 extra staff nationwide, some of whom would go into deliveries.

A Maryport woman, Ann Armstrong said she had been trying t get a delivery.

Morrisons said they did not deliver to her area and suggested she use the included map to find a store hear her.

Sainsbury’s said due to the huge increase in orders they were pausing new registrations for the time being.

Asda was still accepting registrations but had no available slots up to the end of April.

The Co-op said the service was not available in this area and Tesco had no slots before April 11 and was not showing any after that.

“I want to self-isolate but I guess I will be going shopping,” she said.

"It is truly crazy out there. We need to start calming down."

As well as recruiting more staff, Asda is donating £5 million to Fareshare and the Trussell Trust to help the country’s most vulnerable people. It will also give more than 3,000 charities access to free food over the next three months.

The store has temporarily closed non-essential counters to allow staff time to fill shelves.

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We’re working hard to register as many elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers for priority online delivery slots as possible and are very sorry for the inconvenience long wait times could be causing. We are experiencing extremely high demand.”

Up until last weekend Iceland was offering free next day deliver to the elderly and vulnerable.

It is still advertising the service on its website but there are no delivery slots available up until next Monday and now way to book a slot after that.