Chinese residents snap up antigen kits as virus curbs

BEIJING: Chinese residents have rushed to snap up COVID 19 antigen kits and medicines for fevers and colds, as the country's recent easing of prevention measures has triggered widespread concern among the public that they could now catch the virus.

In the past week, online medicine platforms, pharmacies and drugmakers reported surged sales, with JD Health saying that sales of antigen test kits jumped 344 per cent in the week between Nov 28 and Dec 4 from the previous week.

People around me are all buying antigen kits and I also bought 50, said a 40-year-old Beijing resident, Huang Yuqi, who works for an entertainment company.

The country is entering a new phase in terms of pandemic policy and I'm unsure what will happen next. I'm buying N 95 face masks, Tylenol and Ibuprofen because we can only try to protect ourselves. A shop assistant at the Tongzhitang Dongdan drug store in downtown Beijing said they sold out of fever medication on Monday. "I have never seen so many customers come to buy fever medication in one day," he said. We are trying to refill our shelves, but it may take a week. On Monday, the market regulators in Beijing issued a warning against hoarding and hiking prices for epidemic prevention products, including anti-viruses, masks and disinfection and sterilization merchandise.

The surge in demand has resulted in the increase in share prices in medicine manufacturers, with cough syrup producer Guizhou Bailing and Xinhua Pharmaceutical, which makes 40 per cent of all Ibuprofen sold in China, jumping from 8 to 10 per cent on Tuesday.

The general public of China has been kept largely unaffected by the waves of infections that have whipped around the world because of the strict adherence to its zero-COVID policy over the last three years.

China suffered far fewer cases and deaths by global standards, but the economy paid a price for the tough restrictions on movement.

After the public's frustration boiled over late last month with a wave of protests that were the strongest show of dissent since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago, authorities finally started to relax some of the toughest restrictions.