RIYADH — The high demand for facemasks during the past few days coincided with the increase in their availability in pharmacies, with a 188 percent rise in supply since 14 days, the spokesman of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) Tayseer Al-Moufarrej explained. He noted that the SFDA and all the relevant government agencies are constantly monitoring via interactive screens the availability of facemasks in all the regions of the Kingdom. In a press conference on Sunday, Al-Moufarrej said: "The government authorities are conducting daily inspection tours of a number of pharmacies in some cities and regions of the Kingdom to check the availability of facemasks. "We are working on two basic tracks to ensure the availability of facemasks and their continuous supply, through the national industries. "In this connection, there are nine national factories in the regions of Riyadh, Makkah and the Eastern Province, and their daily production reaches 2.5 million facemasks daily. Work is under way to raise this production capacity continuously." Al-Moufarrej said that the average import of facemasks during the past 14 days reached 10 million daily. They arrive via the Kingdom's airports and are examined meticulously by the Saudi Customs or even SFDA. Meticulous care is taken and the masks cleared depending on whether the facemasks are medical or nonmedical, so as to ensure they reach the pharmacies and sales outlets. He pointed out that the supervisory efforts of the Ministry of Commerce, the SFDA and the security authorities are continuing, along with investigations on the allegations of a monopoly on the facemasks or even their quality and whether they are in conformity with the standards and specifications. The reports to the SFDA during the past 14 days reached 14,300, approximately 75 percent of which were processed during the past period and the authorities aspire to increase the rate of processing the reports during the coming period. The SFDA spokesman stressed the importance of updating the Tamini app, which guides the beneficiary to the nearest pharmacy and shows the availability of facemasks, hand sanitizers and sterilizers. Therefore, one can reach the pharmacies easily. He said that the pharmacies currently present in the Tamini app have exceeded 1,000 pharmacies, representing approximately 65 percent of pharmacies in the Kingdom.
