HONG KONG — “It’s like World War III,” said May Tang, an employee at the Kit Pharm Dispensary Ltd. in Hong Kong.

As panic over the coronavirus outbreak has swept across the city, residents have taken to waiting in line for hours to buy face masks, disinfectant and even toilet paper from places like Kit Pharm in North Point.

And Ms. Tang, a friendly woman with tinted hair, has witnessed the hysteria first hand.

“You could say we’re tired,” she said of the spreading outbreak and its consequences. “Not many people can experience so many things at once. It will be written down in history.”

After enduring months of political unrest and a waning economy — and with the deadly SARS outbreak from 2003 still looming in people’s memory — jittery customers concerned about the spread of the coronavirus have started to hoard goods from pharmacies around town, leading to dwindling supplies and increased costs.