Amid a shortage of masks, the government has come up with a new distribution system.
Starting Monday, people are only allowed to purchase two masks per week on designated days based on their birth years.
Lee Kyung-eun explains further.
Despite efforts to increase supply, there is still a shortage of face masks, so now South Korea is putting limits on how many masks individuals can purchase.
Starting Monday, in all pharmacies, people can purchase two face masks per week.
But they have to purchase them on designated days based on a 5-day rotation system.
The last digit of your birth year will decided your day.
If it ends with either 1 or 6, you can buy masks on Mondays.
Those ending in 2 or 7 can buy on Tuesdays; 3 or 8 on Wednesdays,… 4 or 9 on Thursdays and those with years ending in 5 or 0 can buy their masks on Fridays.
People unable to purchase masks during the week can do so at the weekend.
The price of the masks is fixed at 1-thousand 5-hundred Korean won or roughly one U.S. dollar per mask.
But if you don't buy your weekly allowance, it won't be rolled over to the next week.
Also, you can't have someone else buy the masks for you.
This includes parents buying masks for their children.
And purchases are monitored through the government system to prevent multiple purchases.
South Korean citizens should bring their ID card for identification.
Minors can bring a passport, a copy of their residential registration, or their school ID.
And foreign residents require their alien registration card and their national health insurance papers.
"Post offices and the public retailer Nonghyup Hanaro Mart will join in the new system within a week, but until then, they will allow anyone to buy one mask each day regardless of the year they are born in.
Lee Kyung-eun, Arirang news."
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