© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People with protective masks walk in front of Hong Kong’s skylineHONG KONG (Reuters) – Expatriates in Hong Kong are buying up masks to send to family and friends back home as supplies return to shops in the Asian financial hub and the coronavirus spreads around the world.
Boxes of masks can once again be seen stacked up in Hong Kong pharmacies. Shoppers pick them up then join long queues at courier companies and post offices to ship them back home where supplies have disappeared from the shelves.
“My family and friends in Spain are desperate,” said Spanish national Yolanda Caravaca Lopez, who lives in Hong Kong.
“Because there are no masks, they tell me the news as if the end of the world is coming.”
Lopez said she bought 200 masks to send to Spain and France, where prices were up to 15 times higher.
Just one surgical mask can sell for as much as 10 euros ($10.86) in Spain, she said. A pack of 50 in Hong Kong is…
