ARCHIVED - Italian cruise ship visitors buy up all of the face masks in Cartagena pharmacies!

The coronavirus epidemic sends demand for face masks in Spain up by 10,000 per cent

Now that the first coronavirus cases have been confirmed in mainland Spain – two of them in Madrid, one in Barcelona and one in the province of Castellón – there is a danger of the justifiable worries among members of the public spilling over into hysteria, and although the World Health Organization does not include the masks as one of its recommended precautionary measures it is reported that the demand for them in pharmacies in Spain has shot up by an astonishing 10,000 per cent!

While the constant washing of hands after venturing into public places is strongly recommended, as is coughing or sneezing onto your forearm rather than your hands, it seems that the general public instantly identifies a need to don face masks to prevent them from contracting the virus, and the Spanish Federation of Pharmaceutical Distributors (Fedifar) is quoted in “Expansión” as reporting that the demand for masks in January 2020 was 100 times higher than in the same month last year.

At the same time, Fedifar states that the suppliers are able to meet an increase in demand of only around 10 or 15 per cent at present, equating to around 10,000 masks a day as opposed to the current level of demand of close to 80,000.

Among the three types of mask sold the ones used in surgery are not included among those recommended by the WHO in cases of epidemics, as they only prevent contagion spreading from the wearer to others. Those which can be effective are the categories FFP2, with a filtration index of 92 per cent, and FFP3 (98 per cent).

Fedifar also report an annual increase of 700 per cent in the demand for disinfectant hand gels during the first fortnight of February.

It should be pointed out that there will inevitably be cases of people stockpiling masks in anticipation of supplies running out, a situation which is already occurring in dispensing chemists’ in Spain, with the intention of selling them on at exorbitant prices, and in Milan the public prosecution service is already investigating such behaviour.

Meanwhile, an example of the sudden escalation in the perceived threat of infection in Spain was provided in Cartagena on Tuesday by the arrival of the cruise ship MSC Opera, bringing tourists from all over Europe, including various Italians, to the Costa Cálida. Their presence in the city apparently caused a good deal of nervousness and tension, according to the “Capitanía Marítima” authorities in the port, despite the fact that an official declaration that all those on board the ship were in good health having been duly filed on arrival.

Meanwhile, the Italians on board made a beeline for pharmacies in order to stock up on face masks for when they arrive home, only to find that within a few minutes of their arrival stocks had been fully consumed.

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