Coronavirus: Indonesia seizes half a million masks amid panic buying

Coronavirus: Indonesia seizes half a million masks amid panic buying Follow our live updates on Coronavirus

Commuters, wearing facemasks amid fears of the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus

Indonesian police seized over half a million face masks from a Jakarta-area warehouse after the country’s first confirmed cases of coronavirus sparked panic buying and sent prices for prevention products skyrocketing. Authorities were questioning two people after the Tuesday evening raid at a warehouse in satellite city Tangerang, where nearly 600,000 surgical masks were found.“Mask prices have skyrocketed everywhere and there are shortages, most likely because hoarders are trying to make money at the public’s expense,” Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP Wednesday.The warehouse raid came after hundreds of boxes of surgical masks were also seized Tuesday at a Jakarta apartment.

And police said they busted a factory at the weekend allegedly making and distributing counterfeit masks that did not meet health standardsThe crackdown was ordered by Indonesian president Joko Widodo who has called on citizens to avoid panic buying — even as store shelves are cleared and prices soar for masks and hand sanitisers.

“My sales have more than doubled since Monday,” said Nur Hidayati, 29, a jamu seller in Bogor near Jakarta.On Monday, Indonesia confirmed its first coronavirus cases, saying a 64-year-old woman and her daughter, 31, tested positive.But Indonesia — a Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 260 million — had yet to report a confirmed case until this week.

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