One of the largest grocery store chains in the Southeast will be closing earlier every day due to the coronavirus.

Publix announced on Twitter that all stores will close at 8 p.m. until further notice. The policy will go into effect Saturday. There are 1,243 Publix stores across seven states, including Georgia.

The tweet said the decision was to “give (Publix) teams time to conduct addition preventative sanitation and restock products on our shelves.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Georgia shoppers were met with long lines, empty shelves and stressed employees Thursday and Friday, AJC.com previously reported. Cleaning products, bottled water and toilet paper were among commodities that were selling out quickly.

MORE: Some store shelves quickly empty but experts say it's short term

Gwinnett 03-13-20 More than 800 people were lined up outside a Costco near the Mall of Georgia in the Buford area before it opened. Within seven minutes, six pallets of toilet paper – all the warehouse store had in stock – were gone. It also quickly ran out of paper towels, disinfecting wipes and jugs of Lysol disinfectant. Rice was in short supply. Customers were limited to two cases of water per Costco membership. Within an hour there were hundreds of people standing in checkout lines that snaked to the back of the cavernous store. Then workers pulled down the entrance door, concerned they might begin to have too many people in the building. They let in people in groups of 100, as enough shoppers left. Reported by Matt Kempner Edited by Tyson Horne / tyson.horne@ajc.com)

Many grocery stores have begun to limit the number of items customers can purchase in an effort to stay in stock.

In other news:

The accident happened on Bolton Road just before 11 p.m. Wednesday.