By Martha Taumata Faavae
Niu Pharmacy and Maria’s Health Care Pharmacy are no longer in a rush to stock up or place new orders for facemasks and sanitizers.
Customer demands have dropped to almost a standstill, far from when the rush was on a few months ago when the coronavirus threat raise health security needs.
“Probably when the people in Samoa were sure we were safe from the disease, interest disappeared along with their fears,” Maria Hunter of Maria’s Healthcare Pharmacy speculated.
Hunter recalled the rush for masks and sanitizers when the threat of the coronavirus pandemic started in China spread out to the regions of the world including the Pacific Islands.
“We were soon out of stock by the time the surge came as health security became a major public concern we tried to rush out orders for new supplies.”
At Niu Pharmacy sales are down to only a very few who calls in now and then for masks or sanitizers.
A possible reason is the expanding of health protection products recommended like liquid soap available in most of the supermarkets and more.
“Sales of facemasks and sanitizers are back to normal basically,” a spokesperson for Niu Pharmacy observed.
There has been a new push for most of last week for facemasks to be worn in public.
The Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has been leading the call by the coronavirus task force for a return to facemasks and improved hygiene.
The return of more than a thousand stranded Samoans in New Zealand may have encouraged the official call for a return to wearing facemasks.
A World Health Organisation recent report warns of the coronavirus spread accelerating around the world.
The US and other South American countries are reported to be leading in new cases of people with the virus.
New Zealand recently broke its free run of no new cases reported until a couple of UK travellers were tested positive while in the country.
Just before the end of the week, more new cases were against reported from a couple of travellers who arrived into New Zealand from India.
