South Korea will abolish restrictions on the purchase of mas

South Korea's food and drug safety agency said on the 7th that as the supply of domestic masks stabilized, the current restrictions on the purchase of masks will be officially ended on the 11th, and people can purchase medical masks without limitation from the 12th.

Due to the shortage of supply and soaring prices of masks in the early stage of the outbreak of the Xinguan epidemic, South Korea began to implement a government led system of restricting the purchase of masks in late February and early March. The number of masks per person per week was initially 2, then gradually increased to 10, with a unit price of about 1500 won (about 8.8 yuan).

The system was due to expire on June 30. The South Korean government decided last month to extend the validity of the system to July 11.

South Korea issued a "mask order" in May, requiring people to wear masks when taking public transport to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. In Seoul, a man in his 50s was arrested on June 20 for not wearing a mask on a bus and attacking the other party when the driver reminded him. He became the first person in South Korea to be arrested for violating the "mask order".

South Korea has produced more than 100 million masks a week since the beginning of June, Yonhap reported on the 7th, citing statistics from the South Korea food and drug safety agency. According to the assessment of this government department, the demand for masks by the South Korean people has been relatively stable recently, and the supply of masks has continued to increase, which provides conditions for the cancellation of restrictions on purchase.

South Korea's government said it would ensure that there is sufficient reserves of masks in case of an emergency when demand for masks suddenly soars.

In order to ensure the balance of supply and demand of domestic masks, the Korean government will maintain the current export restrictions and continue to ban the export of surgical masks and anti foaming masks; however, mask manufacturers will be allowed to increase the export proportion of medical masks from 30% of the total production to no more than 50%.

According to the epidemic data released by the central anti epidemic Department of South Korea on July 7, 44 confirmed cases were added in South Korea compared with 0:00 the previous day, with a total of 13181 confirmed cases and 285 deaths.

At this stage, the epidemic situation is still very serious.