In line with Welsh Government rules, the Tesco Superstore in Barry has been selling sanitary products since the beginning of the firebreak.

This confirms that yesterday's outrage over the apparent classing of sanitary products as "non-essential" items stems from a mistake made by Tesco's social media team.

A Twitter user yesterday (26 October) posted that she was "literally raging & in tears" after attending a Tesco store in St Mellons and discovering that an aisle including sanitary products had been shut-off from the public.

A social media storm followed, fuelled by a post from Tesco's social media team saying, "we have been told by the Welsh Government not to sell these items for the duration of the lockdown."

In fact, no such instruction had been given.

The Tesco in St Mellons say they had blocked off the aisle in question after a "break-in", and other Tesco stores (like Barry's superstore) had been selling sanitary products.

Speaking to the press, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said that Tesco was "simply wrong" to say sanitary products were classed as non-essential.

Some opposition politicians, however, have said that the "confusing" message of the non-essential shopping ban is to blame.

Leader of the Welsh Conservative Party Andrew RT Davies used the incident as evidence of "the madness unfolding in lockdown Wales thanks to Labour's barmy shopping ban. It has to be ditched!"

Tescos has apologised for the incident, saying: "The reply to this customer was sent by mistake and we're very sorry for any confusion caused."