Following the need for people to protect themselves from the coronavirus disease, some businesses have been cashing in on the pandemic despite a slowdown in some economic activities.
Aside from the vendors and manufacturers of sanitizers, hand gloves, and nose masks, another set of businesses cashing in on the situation are tissue manufacturers.
According to the management of Fon Limited, producers of tissue products, there has been a surge in demand for their products especially after Ghana recorded six cases of the coronavirus.
The General Manager Fon Limited, William Ntiminin in a Citi News interview said the company has enough in stock to meet the demand from local and foreign consumers.
“We have definitely noticed an increase in demand for our products, not just tissue but our products in general. So yes, there has been a notable increase in our in-demand but fortunately for us, we are well-positioned. I’m confident these are panic buying and I do not generally encourage it. We have enough raw materials in stock to even export to neighbouring countries that might be having a shortage of tissue production.”
Other essentials
Due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Ghana, the demand for hand sanitizers has gone up.
Some supermarkets and shops in Ghana have begun selling hand sanitizers at outrageous prices following the announcement of some confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the country.
With education around coronavirus in the country gaining the attention, citizens are advised to follow good personal hygiene rules including washing of hands and the use of sanitizers as and when necessary. This is a risk reduction and preventive measure to contracting the pandemic disease.
In Ghana, some shops have increased the prices of hand sanitizers by an astronomical margin of almost a hundred percent to a thousand percent (100% – 1000%) and over.
For instance, hand sanitizers that were sold previously at about GH¢3.50 are now sold at GH¢15 or event GH¢20.
These increases are due to the excess demand from consumers for the product for which producers have outrageously increased the prices for more profit.
This has sparked various conversations with people sharing their sentiments on how the prices of the products have been increased and how they are unable to purchase them.
Traders have also said that the products are on high demand and wholesale prices form producers have been increased. They claim they have no choice but to increase the prices to consumers.
Confirmed cases in Ghana
Four more cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed in Ghana.
This brings to six, the total number of cases reported in the country.
This was announced by the government at a press briefing on Sunday.
The government said three of the cases were recorded in Accra while one other was recorded in the Ashanti Region.
The Director of Public Health at Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie who provided updates on the country’s cases said the new cases were also imported into the country.
He said two of the cases were confirmed on the 13th of March 2020 while the other two were confirmed on 14th March, 2020.
How to protect yourself
To prevent the spread, the standard recommendations coming from the WHO is regular hand washing, covering one’s mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs.
People are also advised to avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.