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Coronavirus: Hongkongers sending surgical masks overseas as shortages hit friends and family around the world
- As panic over pandemic spreads, shelves around the world are being emptied of protective gear
- In Hong Kong, the shortage has eased as local production ramps up
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Hongkongers who once scrambled to buy face masks to protect themselves from Covid-19 now queue up to send them to family and friends overseas, amid a global shortage of the protective gear.
Residents lined up for hours outside post offices and drop-off counters of courier companies around the city to send surgical face masks to foreign destinations, as shelves storing the once-common product were emptied by shoppers around the globe during the coronavirus pandemic.
People the Post has talked to were delivering masks to locations including the United States, Britain, Canada, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.
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Some said they had benefited from relatives and friends living abroad when they failed to get a mask during an earlier buying craze in the city, but now it was their loved ones who struggled.
In February, Hongkong Post increased staffing levels and extended delivery hours to cope with an 80 per cent surge in the daily volume of inbound parcels.
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