Ever since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, peopleacross the world have gone on a panic buying spree. Stores across the boardhave been running short of essential medical commodities like face masks andhand sanitisers.
In the wake of the growing crisis, one shop in Kerala hasamped up its efforts to make masks easily affordable. According to?The New Indian Express, a distributor ofsurgical items in Kerala has been distributing face masks to high-risk groups at theoriginal rate of Rs 2.
With the growing demand of face masks, the original pricetag which was Rs 2 a piece soared to Rs 20, but this store decided to stick tothe original costing and has so far sold nearly 5000 masks.
Taslim PK, the proprietor of Cochin Surgicals in Kochi, told TNIE?that he sold the masks to people belonging to the high-riskgroup, including hospital staff, KSEB employees and High Court staff.
¡°We used to distribute the mask at the rate of Rs 2 per piece tilllast month. However, now the price has shot up and I purchased the latestconsignment for Rs 8 per piece recently. Considering the health risk posed bythe outbreak, I am distributing the mask to high-risk groups at the originalrate,¡± the daily quoted Taslim as saying.
As the Union government has banned the export of N95? category masks, the prices have crashed. Themask, which was sold at Rs 250 per piece is now available for Rs 150.
The COVID-19 virus has infected 83 people in India so far, whiletwo lives have been lost to the disease declared as a pandemic by the WorldHealth Organisation. Kerala has reported 19 cases of the infection so far.