Masks not mailed out to S'pore households to prevent wastage: Lawrence Wong

The government is not ruling out using the Price Control Act against errant mask sellers.

Joshua Lee | February 03, 2020, 06:00 PM

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The Singapore government decided to distribute face masks at collection points instead of mailing them out so as to avoid wastage, said the Wuhan virus taskforce co-chair Lawrence Wong in Parliament today (Feb. 3).

Wong, the National Development Minister was replying to a follow up question from Non-Constituency MP Leon Perera, who asked if the government is considering enforcing the Price Control Act (PCA) against people who charge high prices for face masks.

Perera also asked about the rationale for setting up distribution points, instead of mailing out the masks.

Perera mentioned that mailing the masks could help by not encouraging people to cluster together, citing an exercise in 2014 when some organisations mailed out N95 masks for those affected by the haze.

Distributing masks is more prudent

"We had deliberated over this," said Wong. "And we felt that if you were to distribute masks via post, there may well be wastage because some households will not need the masks."

He added that residents have had on occasion told him that they do not need masks.

A collection exercise, said Wong, would be a more "prudent" way of distributing masks.

Mask collection at Zhenghua Residents' Committee. Image by Joshua Lee.

"To address the concern of people gathering together, we have decentralised the distribution points to void decks, RC centres. It is proceeding in a very orderly fashion," said Wong.

He also pointed out that there are no large crowds because people are given designated times to collect their masks.

"So actually, based on the exercise that we have done so far, I would say this distribution method is more effective."

Action will be taken against profiteers

Regarding price control of masks, Wong said that the government is not ruling out the use of the Price Control Act.

The price controller is currently "pursuing, investigating, getting more information" about errant mask sellers and will consider action that needs to be taken against profiteers.

 

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Top image by Martino Tan.