Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The price of medical masks is on the riseafter new COVID-19 community infections were confirmed in Da Nang city and QuangNgai province.
The mask market has been heating up. Online sellers quickly started topost medical masks with different prices. Overall, prices were increasing.
An Yen posted on a group of nearly 158,000 members that “people should rush tobuy medical masks before prices surge due to the recurrence of COVID-19in the community. The price is now 70,000 VND for a box of fifty masksinstead of 50,000 VND the day before”.
She also said the four-layer mask meets required standards. She sellshundreds of boxes a day, adding that buyers must purchase two boxes or moreas it was hard to call shippers.
In the past two days, there were hundreds of posts on social media selling facemasks.
Facebook account Que Anh said she will keep the price of masks unchanged forpre-orders. Those ordering later would pay more.
“Wholesalers increased the price from 1.8 million VND to 2.4 million VND andeven more than 3 million VND for a case of 50 boxes,” she said.
The online mask market has been active. However, in Hanoi’s pharmacies,sale have gone up again but there was no phenomenon of a “fever”, orscarcity of masks and antiseptic hand gel as before.
A pharmacist at An Tam Pharmacy in Bac Linh Dam said the shop still has enoughmasks. However, the price increased from 50,000 VND to 70,000 VND for abox.
Meanwhile, pharmacy Tue Minh in Linh Dam Urban Area said their priceshad not changed as they pre-ordered from producers.
“Currently, the supply of medical masks, antibacterial cloth masksand antiseptic hand wash is abundant,” she said.
However, she said, medical masks were out of stock and would be deliveredtomorrow.
“Each person could only buy one box of masks for 40,000 VND to 70,000 VND dependingon the type to avoid speculation,” she added.
Le Tien Truong, general director of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group(Vinatex), said that Vinatex’s antibacterial cloth mask production capacity is100 million pieces, while for medical mask it is 30 million pieces a month.
“When the pandemic occurred in Da Nang and Quang Ngai, we directed the Vinatexmember companies to resume the disease prevention procedures implemented inMarch and April, especially with factories in the central region.
"At the same time, Vinatex subsidiaries are ready to produce and supplyenough for the 3-layer mask market,” said Truong.
According to a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as of 11am onJuly 26, the Market Watch Department in Da Nang checked 547 shops sellingmasks, antiseptic gel and gloves in the city.
The results showed that the situation was still stable. There was no phenomenonof people rushing to buy masks or hand gel. Shops did not hoard goodsand listed full prices./.
VNA