In the Japanese city of Kobe, thieves have stolen around 6,000 mouth caps from a hospital. The criminals removed the masks from a warehouse of the Japanese Red Cross.
There is a significant shortage of masks, which are used to prevent infection with the new coronavirus.
“We still have a large number of masks, enough to continue our daily operations at the hospital,” said a hospital employee in Kobe on Tuesday. “But this is so regrettable.” The police suspect that the thieves want to sell the masks for a lot of money.
In Japan, but also in other Asian countries, most mouth caps are sold out. There is also a shortage of other products. On Monday, armed robbers seized a delivery person in Hong Kong from hundreds of rolls of toilet paper. There is also, for example, a run on disinfectants.
The infectious coronavirus broke out in the Chinese province of Hubei at the end of last year. More than 1800 people have died of the virus. More than 72,000 people in China became infected.