HONG KONG, Feb 23 — With chronic face mask shortages in the midst of a virus outbreak, Hong Kongers have started making their own — with a pop-up production line and seamstresses churning them out on sewing machines. In one of the most densely populated cities on earth, face masks have become...
Tailor Elase Wong making masks out of patterned material at a shop in Hong Kong. — AFP pic
Long queues — sometimes thousands strong — routinely crop up outside pharmacies when supplies are in, and there is anger at the government’s failure to have stockpiled.Judy, a 73-year-old out shopping in the district of Wanchai, was spotted in a homemade mask. A colourful array of cloth masks hangs outside many of the cramped storefronts as shoppers haggle over the din of whirring sewing machines.“Some people couldn’t buy any masks... So if they can make them themselves, that would be great,” she told AFP. The cost of masks has skyrocketed with scarcity and the government resisting price controls or rationing, as in nearby Macau and Taiwan.
Output has been ramped up on a prison labour production line and there are plans to set aside HK$1.5 billion to support the creation of domestic factories.
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