Saudi seizes 5 million hoarded masks as loss of life toll doubles
30 March, 2020
Saudi authorities have seized a lot more than five million medical masks which were illegally stockpiled amid the coronavirus outbreak, state media reported Sunday, as the death toll on the kingdom doubled.
The commerce ministry seized 1.17 million masks from an exclusive store in Hail, northwest of the capital, after authorities Wednesday confiscated a lot more than four million masks placed in a facility in the western city of Jeddah in violation of commercial regulations, the official Saudi Press Company reported.
The ministry said persons behind such activities will be prosecuted, and that the confiscated masks will be redistributed to the open market.
Pharmacies found in the oil-rich kingdom have reported shortages of masks amid panic buying, as being authorities warned against hoarding and cost hikes.
Saudi Arabia is going to be scrambling to limit the pass on of the deadly disease in the home.
The kingdom's health ministry on Sunday said the death toll from the COVID-19 disease had doubled to eight as cumulative infections rose from 1,203 to at least one 1,299 -- the highest in the Gulf region.
Riyadh has imposed a nationwide partial curfew, barred access and exit from the administrative centre and also Islam's two holiest places Mecca and Medina and prohibited movements between all provinces.
King Salman warned the other day of a "more challenging" fight in advance against the virus, as being the kingdom faces the financial double blow of virus-led shutdowns and crashing oil prices.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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