Spanish pharmacists are making 'their August' in the month of January with the sale of masks to prevent coronavirus . So much so that from January 1 to 26, sales increased by 77% compared to last year, and 330% between January 22 and 24 , the highest demand of the month, according to Efe with data provided by Cofares.
José Merodio, head of a pharmacy in Usera, the Chinatown of Madrid, explains to El Mundo that last week was "crazy. Sales have multiplied by 20". He assures that the three distributors with whom he works have run out of stock . "This morning I managed to contact a laboratory that has sent me a box of 20 units, and I don't think they are at noon," he said this morning.
Without wanting to be an alarmist , Merodio says that this does not only happen in his neighborhood or in his city, since the Chinese community works through whatsapp and moves a lot . In fact, Antonio Mingorance, president of the Andalusian Council of Pharmaceutical Colleges, and Vice President of Bidafarma (composed of eight cooperatives), confirms this increase in demand: "We had the normal stock of masks, but whenever such an event occurs sales soar . We have a lot of Chinese population in Spain. " Specifically, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), more than 224,559 people with Chinese nationality reside in Spain.
In Catalonia they are not better either. Pep Soler runs a pharmacy in the center of Barcelona, on the Paseo de Gracia itself, where many Chinese tourists come : "We have no stocks since the weekend. We work with two laboratories and they tell us they have no shipping forecast."
According to the Federation of Pharmaceutical Distributors (Fedifar), the number of requests for masks by pharmacies has increased significantly, around 3,000% , but this figure must be taken with tweezers, since it is "a product with very little rotation and, apart from that, it is preventive; it is not a medicine ". In addition, the same pharmacy can repeat the request several times . From Fedifr they trust that the supply will be restored soon: "Everything depends on the laboratories".
Most demanded masks
Not all masks protect the same, so the product that the Chinese are asking for is one in particular: mask with FFP2 filter , with a special protection for respiratory diseases. "However, in the end they take the remaining mask," Merodio adds.
In the same way they pronounce in another pharmacy of Usera, Farmausera: "At the beginning they saw asking for a concrete mask, the N95 model , but it is sold out worldwide. They take the mask we have, but last Saturday we ran out of stock" , says one of the pharmaceuticals.
Soler, from Barcelona, also explains that in the beginning the Chinese asked for masks to protect themselves from dust and mites: "Then they took the paper ones, and now they would take anything that covers their mouths."
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