Surgical-mask makers in Shenzhen are racing to keep up with demand, which has surged after the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus that originated in Wuhan.
The city’s regulators have vowed to strengthen market supervision to ensure an adequate supply of surgical masks.
Shenzhen-based medical supplies company Winner Medical said that in addition to ensuring its normal supply to hospitals and pharmacies, the company is making a big effort to produce surgical masks several times the normal level.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the company said that its factories producing protection products will not close during the Lunar New Year holiday, and also will ramp up production to 24 hours a day to ensure the largest supply of masks possible.
Winner Medical president Li Jianquan said the company would ensure the quality of its products and work actively with the government to transport the masks. He also pledged not to raise prices in any of sales channels.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen’s market supervision department said it is stepping up inspection of pharmacies on their pricing of surgical masks and antiviral drugs. It is also investigating allegations of market misconduct, including fabricating and spreading information on price increases, and artificially inflating prices.
“We will spare no efforts in doing our job well to ensure drug safety for residents,” an unnamed official from the department said, adding that people are welcome to report any conduct that disrupts normal market order.
According to the department, 200 of the 285 pharmacies it inspected in Shenzhen on Tuesday had sold out their supplies of masks.
In the latest development of the epidemic, which was first reported in December, more than 460 people across the country have been diagnosed with the disease, and nine people have died.
Twenty-six people in Guangdong province have been infected with the coronavirus.
