We urge the government to hand out masks

2020.02.04

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Under the threat posed by the spread of covid-19, Hong Kong is short of masks and other protective products. Unscrupulous merchants hike the prices of masks and disinfectant products while some of them even try to hoard supplies and sell the substandard products.

According to information provided by the government, there are currently nearly 11 million masks in the storage of the Government Logistics Department. We urge the government to hand out these masks which are not urgently needed to the general public for free.

In order to crack down unscrupulous merchants, we also urge the government to include masks and other protective products into the “Reserved Commodities Ordinance” and formulate administrative measures to get hold of these supplies and impose pricing and buying restrictions so that general public could buy masks at reasonable market price.

We emphasized that it cannot solely rely on the market mechanism to cope with the epidemic threat. The government should implement proactive measures to stabilize and increase the supply of masks so that preventive measures could be carried out effectively in each community.

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