The mayor of Bridgeport says toilets are backing up all over the city because people are improperly disposing of hand wipes.

Mayor Joe Ganim is urging the public to continue using the wipes to battle coronavirus, but he says used wipes must be thrown in the trash -- not the toilet.

"As a city, with 150,000 people throwing them in, we're getting stoppages," says Ganim. "Your toilets are going to end up backing up, the sewage lines are going to get backed up. Please, for your own safety, for your own cleanliness and sanitary conditions, don't flush the wipes that we're all using and we need to use, don't flush them down the toilet. Put them in the trash."

Manpower is already thin, so Ganim says this issue could create a secondary crisis for the city.

It comes as the CDC recommends frequent hand-washing to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Sales of handwipes have skyrocketed.