Amidst the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) people have grown increasingly worried. Part of that is the shortage of face maks currently taking place worldwide.
In Thailand, one store took advantage of this to make money by reselling used face masks. It was a second-hand shop that buys and sells used goods.
(Thieves Steal 6,000 Surgical Masks From Hospital Amid COVID-19 Panic)
According to The Nation Thailand, Thai police raided the shop recycling face masks and selling them to customers ‘good as new.’ On March 2 the police found 6 workers in the second-hand shop organizing and ironing the worn masks before placing them in packages. They also found a washing machine being used to “clean” the face masks.
A worker told Wihandaeng district chief officer Somsak Kaewasnathat “they got paid [sic] THB1 (roughly P1.63) per piece, while they recycled around 300 to 400 masks per day, per person.”
Shop owner Jintana Manwichai confessed that she “had sold up to 200,000 pieces of recycled masks at the price of three baht each on Facebook.”
The owner and her 2 accomplices were reportedly “charged with selling falsely labeled commodities.”
What do you think about this?
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