Tokyo: Thieves in Japan have made off with some 6,000 surgical masks from a hospital, with the country facing a mass shortage and a huge price hike online due to the coronavirus.
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Four boxes containing the face masks disappeared from a locked storage facility at the Japanese Red Cross hospital in the western port city of Kobe, a hospital official said on Tuesday.
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“We still have a large number of masks – enough to continue our daily operations at the hospital, but this is so deplorable,” the official told AFP.
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Police have launched an investigation as they suspect the thieves intend to resell the masks.
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Masks have sold out at many drug and discount stores across the nation as the number of infections have increased in Japan – one of the most affected countries after China where the death toll from the virus has hit 1,800.
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Public anxiety has been also fuelled by headlines of hundreds of people infected with the virus on board a ship quarantined off Japan.
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The theft came after knife-wielding men jumped a delivery driver and stole hundreds of toilet rolls on Monday in Hong Kong, where the coronavirus outbreak has fuelled a run on face masks, hand sanitiser and toilet paper.
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Japanese flea market app Mercari called on its users to trade masks “within socially accepted limits” after a box of 65 masks was priced at more than 50,000 yen ($456) at its online marketplace.
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The Japanese government has “strongly requested” mask makers to boost output, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters last week.
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There has been a shortage of masks at drug stores in the hygiene-conscious nation where face masks have been part of everyday streetwear for decades.
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