Indonesia cracks down on mask hoarders amid coronavirus panic-buying
Indonesian police said on Wednesday they had seized more than 500 boxes of face masks, part of a crackdown on hoarding amid panic-buying after the government confirmed the country’s first two cases of the new coronavirus this week.
Officers raided a warehouse in Tangerang, just west of Jakarta, and confiscated 180 boxes containing nearly 600,000 surgical masks, Jakarta police spokesperson Yusri Yunus said.
Read also: Iraq reports death of coronavirus, first in the Arab world
“They are not authorized to distribute the masks,” Yusri said, adding that three owners of the warehouse were being questioned.
Police on Tuesday seized 350 boxes of the items from a flat in the capital, he said.
Prices of surgical masks have skyrocketed since the government announced two confirmed cases of the virus on Monday, after insisting for weeks that the country had zero cases.
Buyers have to fork out as much as 500,000 rupiah (35 dollars) for a box of masks that normally cost 20,000.
Jakarta residents have also flocked to supermarkets to stock up on food and hand sanitizers. (dpa)
