Authorities caught a store in Saraburi province in Thailand, “repackaging and reselling” used face masks.
Reports said six workers caught ironing the used face masks to sell them as new. A dealer sold them the used face masks.
Authorities also found a huge washing machine in the scene, which was being used to “clean” the masks.
The shop’s owner, Jintana Manwichai, claimed to have sold up to 200,000 of the recycled face masks at 3 baht through Facebook—that comes up to a total of more than RM80,000 or P128,000.
One of the workers 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.”
As a response, the government of Thailand will now control the distribution of face masks in the country.
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Its “Mask Management Center” would control the distribution of 38 million face masks that are manufactured in Thailand every month.
Thailand currently has 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection at the time of writing, with a single fatality recorded.
Vice says that the prices of hand sanitizers have shot up to US$149 (about RM626) per bottle while disinfecting wipes are also available at a premium price of US$58.84 (about RM247). Folks over in China have also complained of recycled face masks.