Shoppers queue to enter a Tesco supermarket, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in West London, Britain, March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s market-leading supermarket chain Tesco said on Friday it would hire 20,000 people to work in its stores for at least the next 12 weeks to cope with an unprecedented increase in demand for food and household products.

“We launched our recruitment drive online on Wednesday and since them we have already been overwhelmed by support from the public and thank everyone who has applied to work with us in stores,” Tesco’s Chief People Officer Natasha Adams said in a statement.

“We have seen 140,000 views on our Tesco Careers page and over the coming days thousands of new colleagues will join us in helping to feed the nation.”

Britain has been experiencing a persistent spate of panic buying that has left many supermarket shelves bare since the coronavirus crisis began to accelerate.