700,000 masks available at designated local supermarkets

오늘 전국 농협 하나로마트에 마스크 70만개 공급

Domestic demand for face masks in South Korea has shot up drastically as the number of confirmed patients with COVID-19 spike to over 43-hundred.
The government implemented measures to secure and distribute masks to the public through state-run and public retailers to cope with the shortage.
Eum Ji-young zooms in on the situation.
Faced with a shortage amid the COVID-19 outbreak,… people across South Korea are struggling to stock up on protective face masks.
"Hundreds of people have lined up in front of this local supermarket in Seoul to buy protective face masks. But as supplies are limited, people are only allowed to buy five masks each."
Public retailer Nonghyup Hanaro Mart said that they started supplying around 700-thousand masks at 2,219 branches across the country on Monday.
This particular branch started selling at around 9 AM but some people had been trying to get masks elsewhere before the event started, amid concerns that they would sell out.
"Before coming here, I've visited several places since 8 AM today in search of masks but they were all sold out. But I was able to get some here."
Some were very satisfied with being able to buy masks at a reasonable price which was around 1 US dollar.
"I couldn't get masks anywhere until last week. Even though the price of masks was around 4 to 5 dollars each online, they were all sold out. So I did not have high hopes coming here but I am very thankful and happy that I was able to get some here after lining up."
While some people were relieved to be able to stock up on masks, others were unhappy about having to wait in line.
"I felt discontented because I thought it was unreasonable to line up for a mask when they should be readily available these days."
Since last Friday, branches of Nonghyup Hanaro Mart across the country have distributed nearly 2-point-8 million masks.
In addition, post offices and pharmacies across South Korea started selling face masks as of 11 AM on Monday at around a dollar each.
To help relieve the mask shortage in the country, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said on Monday that it's also considering selling masks at convenience stores.
Eum Ji-young Arirang News.

#COVID19 #coronavirus #SouthKorea

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