Another one million medical face masks distributed, doubling supply

TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism announced yesterday that an additional one million medical face masks were provided to pharmacies and supermarkets, bringing their total number to two million. The supply of face masks is a part of efforts to implement the preventive measures taken by the Kingdom to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19). It is also in line with the decisions taken by the Government Executive Committee.

The measures mainly include the mandatory wearing of face masks or face coverings whilst in public, and allowing commercial and industrial businesses providing goods or services directly to customers to open and resume work provided that employees and visitors wear face masks. The Ministry also announced that the new medical face masks will be sold at 180 fils each. Meanwhile, the Ministry shut down a leading pharmacy in Zinj for violating laws after drastically hiking the price of boxes of surgical masks.

The cost to purchase a box at the pharmacy was BD34.500, which was considered to be a grossly unreasonable amount. Elsewhere yesterday, Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed R. Al Zayani conducted inspection visits to a number of local factories where face masks, sanitisers and disinfectants are being manufactured. During his visits, Minister Al Zayani affirmed the government’s support for all projects in the Kingdom, especially in light of the current situation.