City Reporter The suspected leakage in Keamari has resulted not only in deaths of 14 but has also led to a 750% surge in the prices of surgical masks. Already high in demand amid the fear of coronavirus — which originated in China’s Wuhan city and has left more than 2,000 people dead in the People’s Republic — the surgical masks are reportedly significantly short in supply in Karachi’s markets now as customers, worried over the gas leakage, throng markets to buy them for protection. Surgical masks were being sold for Rs2 a piece before Sunday night, when it was suspected that a gas leak had affected residents in Keamari near Karachi Port Trust (KPT), causing 14 deaths. As of Thursday evening, the masks were being sold for Rs15 each. he sales people at medical stores and chemists claimed that there has been a shortage of surgical masks since the past one month. Although surgical masks were sent to China from around the world free of cost after the coronavirus outbreak, Pakistani merchants, however, repurchased the masks already in supply at twice the price and exported them to Beijing, they added.
