It was found that the supply of cold medicines in pharmacies in Seoul decreased while purchase requests increased. After a surge of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (Corona 19) infection in China, there are signs of hoarding of cold medicines, and the government has announced a policy to limit the number of sales of cold medicines per person.
On the 2nd, Dong-A Ilbo visited 16 pharmacies in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and found that many pharmacists were expressing their concerns, saying: “The supply of cold medicines is lower than usual” and voluntarily limiting the bulk purchases.
“A few days ago, elderly people between the ages of 60 and 70 bought at least 5 cold medicines and at most 10 cold medicines,” said a pharmacist. There has also been a hoarding movement by Chinese residents in Korea. Mr A said, “If a Chinese person asks for 10 cold medicines, we only sell 1 or 2.”
Some pharmacies ask if bulk purchases are possible. Person B, a pharmacy employee near Jongno 5-ga, said, “In the past week, there were two times that a customer who looked like a foreigner asked, ‘How many can I buy?'”” he said.
Reporter Lee Ki-wook [email protected]
