Amid mounting fears of an A(H1N1) epidemic, the government said yesterday it had an ample supply of facemasks and urged the public not to hoard the item.
“With sufficient facemasks in stock, there is no need for the public to hoard them,” the Industrial Development Bureau said.
Bureau officials quoted the latest survey showing that the inventory of facemasks at four major convenience store franchises nationwide were enough to meet public demand for one to two months. The four franchises operate a total of 9,200 stores across the nation.
Store franchise operators should avoid leaving their shelves empty so the public could buy facemasks whenever they needed them, the officials said.
The central government also has 11 million facemasks in stock, enough for half of the population, they said.
Another 15 million facemasks are in stock for use in medical institutions or by health workers, they added.
In related news, increased sales of facemasks and other hygiene products, such as hand cream, hand sanitizers and sterilizing liquid, have been reported in convenience and other retail stores over the past week, with sales going up by between 10 percent and 30 percent.
Cosmed Taiwan Inc, a drug store franchise owned by Uni-President Group, said sales of hand sanitizers had surged 40 percent since Saturday, while sales of vitamin C and multivitamins had risen by about 15 percent.
“Overall sales of these products have seen a stronger increase in the south compared with the north after Typhoon Morakot wreaked havoc in southern Taiwan,” a Cosmed spokesperson said.
As of yesterday, Taiwan had five confirmed swine flu fatalities, with the number of severe cases exceeding 40, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
The number of cluster A(H1N1) infections is also estimated to have hit 100, and more than 10,000 people are coming down with the virus each week, the CDC said.
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