UPDATE: The story has been updated to include a reply from FairPrice.

SINGAPORE — Surgical face masks and N95 masks are flying off pharmacy shelves, following the increasing spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

On Thursday (23 January), Yahoo News Singapore visited five Unity, Guardian and Watsons stores and found that all of them had run out of masks.

The flurry to stock up comes even though no confirmed cases of the virus have been reported in Singapore. Three more suspected cases were identified yesterday, while seven previously reported cases had tested negative.

At Serangoon’s Nex, a Watsons staff member said that the store’s masks had ran out since yesterday. She added that N95 masks may be restocked in the afternoon. Only two packs of children’s masks could be seen.

Sales assistant Kamisah Haribin, 53, said that she had customers approaching her for masks every two to three minutes.

“Yesterday, a customer told me that she went to Yishun and managed to get within the same day, but it ran out by the end of the day,” she recalled. “The suppliers only produce a bit each day and they get snapped up.”

Within half an hour, more than five customers, mostly middle-aged women, had been turned away after asking about masks.

One of them, homemaker Jenny Gng, visited the outlet with her grandson, who sported a surgical mask.

Said Gng, 68, in Mandarin, “It is better to buy for safety because when we take the bus and the train, we keep seeing people coughing and sneezing without covering their mouths.”

She added that she would be returning in the afternoon to find out if the masks had been replenished, as her daughter was anxious about the issue.

Another customer, Steven Lee, said that he had tried Watsons in the hopes of buying masks for his family’s travel to Beijing over Chinese New Year.

Asked about the situation in China, the 44-year-old, who works in finance, said, “It should be fine.”

At Unity Pharmacy, which is under NTUC FairPrice, only a single box of two-ply surgical masks were left, with stocks selling out as early as Tuesday, according to staff. Staff did not know when the masks would be restocked.

View photos Only a box of two-ply disposable face masks remains at Unity Pharmacy. (Photo:Wan Ting Koh/Yahoo News Singapore) More

Guardian assistant manager at 100AM Patrick Eng said that demand had spiked this week.

“We will see people buying four or five boxes at a time, especially foreigners. We hope to restock today, we usually get a few hundred at a time. We have sufficient stock in the warehouse.”

“This week, we have sold more than 1,000 pieces in a few days. Including last week, we have sold more than 2,000 pieces,” said Eng.

Other items in-demand

Hand sanitisers and anti-bacterial wet wipes have not been spared, with Dettol brand hand sanitisers sold out within half an hour of Watsons’ opening at Nex on Thursday. Kamisah said that sales for these products have tripled in the past week, with two customers buying all the the bottles in bulk this morning.

View photos Dettol brand hand sanitisers ran out within half an hour at Watsons on Thursday morning. (Photo: Wan Ting Koh/Yahoo News Singapore) More

Asked about the sale of its masks, a Guardian spokesman confirmed that there had been an increase in sales of masks, with sales quadrupling in the last two weeks.

Sales of thermometers and hand sanitisers have also tripled in the same period, according to the spokesman.