Chinese expats 'buying, exporting face masks to their home country'

Many Chinese citizens in the Kingdom are buying face masks in large numbers and sending home in bid to address the shortage for face masks there following the outbreak of coronavirus, it emerged.

Speaking to Tribune, many pharma store managers said that Chinese citizens have been visiting pharma outlets to buy face masks in bulk in the past three days.

Bahrain Pharmacy Financial Controller Francis Kaitharath said Chinese nationals representing many Chinese civil society groups, purchased 20 cartons of face masks yesterday alone.

He said that two types of face masks are popular among the customers - surgical and N95. And among them "surgical face masks are mostly in demand".  

It is estimated that 35 million face masks are being sold in China on a daily basis following the outbreak.

Face masks were out of stock at many pharma stores across the Kingdom as people began buying them in large numbers over coronavirus fear. The shortage is attributed to declining supply and increasing demand in the Kingdom. 

Meanwhile, the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak continues its deadly spread.

The novel illness, provisionally known as 2019-nCov, has infected over 20,000 people according to the latest data. There have been over 500 deaths, with cases springing up in 27 countries. Chinese authorities have implemented wide-ranging travel restrictions to control the outbreak.