Mumbai: In the wake of alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the Mumbai Crime Branch on Tuesday cracked down on the illegal sale of surgical masks in the city and seized goods worth ₹ Rs 14 crore.
A total of 25 lakh masks, which had been hoarded by black marketers, were recovered during the raids. Currently, Maharashtra has 97 COVID-19 cases and a majority of them are from Mumbai.
There have been reports of masks being sold at rates 25 times above the printed price in Mumbai and Pune. In its notification two weeks ago, the FDA had declared sanitisers, surgical masks and N95 masks as essential commodities and warned of action against those hoarding these items.
According to a report in Times of India, private hospitals in Pune that have been identified for the isolation and treatment of Covid-19 patients are facing an acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), which include face masks, eye shield, shoe cover, gown and gloves. The medical professionals can use them for only five or six hours before having to discard them.
The demand for masks and sanitisers has reached a fever pitch across the country as the coronavirus infections continue to witness a surge. According to the data updated Tuesday morning, the total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 492, including 446 active cases. The figure includes 41 foreign nationals and the nine deaths reported so far.
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