LAHORE: The provincial metropolis and other cities of Punjab faced an acute shortage of masks on Thursday after the stocks at medical stores, pharmacies and general shops depleted due to panic buying in the wake of two coronavirus patients in the country.

“The entire stock available at our store finished on Wednesday night as the people bought thousands of masks in a bid to protect themselves from the virus. The situation emerged after TV channel broke the news of two coronavirus-affected people, including one in Karachi,” a salesman at a pharmacy in Johar Town told Dawn. “So we have no masks now,” he added.

There are reports related to sale of masks at various places in Lahore on the black market. Though the store owners denied selling the masks at higher rates, the people criticised the government for not taking action in such a situation.

“I almost checked 10 medical stores in my area. All have no masks. However, I finally succeeded in buying some pieces, and not those manufactured exclusively for coronavirus at Rs100 each. The price of special mask has also increased to Rs500 (each) or so,” Salman, a citizen, told this reporter.

According to a medical store owner, the shortage of masks at pharmacies occurred due to short supply from the manufacturers. “Most of the manufacturers are exporting masks to China and other countries under agreements. So they have no time and capacity to also meet demand at their home country at the moment. And those (manufacturers) who have some stocks are supplying the product to the stores at much higher rates, leaving the stores’ owners with no option but to sell the product at higher price.”

He said the masks shortage in other cities such as Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Gujranwala, Sahiwal and Sargodha also persisted because of panic buying and short supplies.

On the other hand, various TV channels showed long queues of the people at medical stores for buying masks.

UMRAH: Offices of travel agencies also witnessed a rush of Umrah passengers after they were off-loaded reportedly from various planes set to take off for Saudi Arabia from Lahore airport.

Since the Umrah seekers were off-loaded due to suspension of Umrah service by the Saudi government over coronavirus reports, they gathered at their respective travel agencies and sought return of the fare, local travelling, hotel and meal charges etc.

“We are really worried due to this sudden situation, as our travel agent seems reluctant to return the money,” said one of the Umrah seekers.

He asked the government to help them get their money back from the travel agents.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2020