It’s a good time to be selling face masks in China

The new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China has infected nearly 2,000 people worldwide (mostly in China) and killed 56—numbers that look certain to increase. As the disease has spread throughout the country and abroad, numerous reports have noted that face masks are hard to get, for the public and healthcare workers alike. In Hong Kong, where eight cases of the disease have been diagnosed to date, prices for face masks sold in pharmacies were up 30% on Jan. 24, according to the South China Morning Post.