As the coronavirus pandemic ensues in China, citizens, merchants and government officials alike are on a mad rush for face-masks. As of Feb 20, 2020, China has imported 50 million yuan worth of medical supplies, including 1.37 billion facemasks and more than 15 million protective suits.
The countrywide scramble for facemasks has caused a widespread shortage of facemasks not only in China, but also in many parts of the globe. In fact, the demand for these medical supplies has become so enormous that it has sucked up virtually every single facemask any country can offer.
According to Milano Today, the panic rush for surgical facemasks have spread to Italy. Locals have joined in the frenzy, and a rapid depletion of the local surgical facemask supply ensued in Italy. Citizens in Italy are vying for every mask that they could get their hands on.
A pharmacy depleted its stock of facemasks within a few hours. The owners claim that they have attempted to contact the facemask suppliers for more stock. Unfortunately, most suppliers have run out of stock and all they could do was to wait for a restock.
Some pharmacies do have boxes of 100 masks for sale. However, these are usually scalpers charging the poor locals $100Euros for 100 facemasks.
A supplier that specialises in surgical facemasks, Dpi di Roma, stated that they have sold 10 years worth of facemask stock in a matter of 10 days. Yet, they are still unable to meet the overwhelming demand for facemasks, with new orders for millions of facemasks being placed every single day.
Another Italian manufacturer for personal protective equipment, Cormano, stated that the total demand for facemasks in Italy in the past few years is only around 15-20 million per year. However, in the past few days, they have received orders for 10 million facemasks, equivalent to roughly 50% of the yearly Italian demand for facemasks in just days.
In order to cope with the inflated demand for facemasks, the company has sent its 40 workers in Italy and 20 workers in Spain to work in three shifts round the clock in order to boost the productivity of its factories.
Source: Apple Daily TW #Feb23
https://bit.ly/37Vrvlr
#Italy #MaskShortage