BEIJING/SEOUL, May 27: In the months before it acknowledged its first official COVID-19 outbreak, North Korea suddenly imported millions of face masks, 1,000 ventilators, and possibly vaccines from China, trade data released by Beijing showed.

Mickey waved from a distance and visitors wore colorful face masks with mouse ears on Saturday as Florida’s Walt Disney World opened to the public for the first time in four months amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the state.

KANCHANPUR, April 18:The families displaced by the Shuklaphanta National Park are facing acute shortage of food stuffs due to ongoing lockdown.

NEW DELHI, March 27: India needs at least 38 million masks and 6.2 million pieces of personal protective equipment as it confronts the spread of coronavirus, and has approached hundreds of companies to secure supplies quickly, according to a report by the country’s investment agency seen by Reuters.

Local initiative

March 19, 2020 10:23 am

As the threat of coronavirus pandemic is looming, some local governments have stepped up efforts to produce face masks and hand sanitizers of which the residents across Nepal have faced acute shortage already. It is months since these two vital items to protect oneself from possible infection stopped being available in the market. Apart from black marketing, scarcity of these items is the result of our dependence on countries like China and India wherefrom we import them. It seems things are slowly changing.

KATHMANDU, March 19: The government on Wednesday decided to sell the face masks confiscated from the black marketeers through Sajha Swasthya Sewa Cooperative (SSSC).

KATHMANDU, March 14: Police on Saturday arrested eight persons on the charge of their involvement in black marketing of face masks.