Boost face masks supplies in the city, lawmaker urges

Pro-establishment lawmaker Ann Chiang Lai-wan has urged the Food and Health Bureau to boost the supplies of face masks across the city to not repeat the 2003 SARS outbreak that claimed under 300 lives. 

Worrying about the shortage of masks, Chiang wrote on Facebook on Thursday that the authority should prioritise supplying new masks to local citizens, including distributing them to those holding a Hong Kong identity card for free via Home Affair Bureaus across 18 districts and clinics and health centers under the Department of Health. 

With anxiety heightening in Hong Kong over the new pneumonia-linked coronavirus, supplies of face masks - both surgical masks and the coveted N95s, are selling out across the city,  with some appearing to jack up their prices amid soaring demand. 

In one case, a box with 30 surgical masks that originally cost HK$50 skyrocketed to around HK$100 to HK$200, which is an increase by 1 to 3 times. 

Macau, another special administrative region which borders Hong Kong, has started rationing the sale of masks in respect of the emerging virus this Tuesday, including allowing the sale of 10 masks to each Macau permanent resident at maximum. 

As of Tuesday, Hong Kong health officials had identified 171 suspected cases of the virus, which first cropped up in Wuhan city of China on December 31. Since then, Chinese officials have identified more than 600 infections and nearly 20 deaths related to the illness.