Coronavirus: A new business tool for many

At a time when pandemic Coronavirus is spreading across the world, some sellers and distributors are trying to cash in on the disease. They are taking advantage of the situation by selling fake masks and sanitisers which are not medically tested. Citizens have been visiting medical shops to buy masks and sanitisers. Yesterday Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration officials raided a firm in Aurangabad and caught staff changing expiry date labels on hand sanitiser bottles to profit from the novel Coronavirus outbreak in the state. Beside this, the FDA had raided companies manufacturing fake sanitisers which offered no real germ killing properties. The FDA team had later seized a stock of sanitisers worth over Rs 2 lakh from a Kandivali-based distributor. After conducting a probe, FDA learnt that these products were manufactured by a Bhiwandi based company which had surrendered its licence two years ago. The FDA team also came across another firm in Vakola which was selling bogus products under the name of Safe hands. The anti-bacterial and sanitiser bottles had customer care number printed on it which was not working.

Some companies are selling air purifiers and asking customers to buy these products to combat Coronavirus. Babas are selling gau mutras and saying that it will heal Coronavirus.  Some of them are selling naturopathic sterilisers and Ayurveda homemade masks. People are performing rituals and chanting mantras to get rid of Coronavirus. The demand for masks and sanitisers have increased due to fear of Coronavirus. People have started stocking up sanitisers and masks. Currently, many medical shops are running out of stocks of sanitisers and masks. Demand for handkerchiefs too have increased as people are wrapping them round their nose and mouth to control the spread of Coronavirus. Netizens too are circulating false and misleading tips on social media about how to control Coronavirus.

Coronavirus that has spread in more than 100 countries created a panic situation around the globe. On Sunday last, Italy reported 368 new deaths from the Coronavirus outbreak as the country’s death toll hit 1,809 while the number of positive cases rose to 24,747 from 21,157 on Saturday, the country’s civil protection authority said.

The number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in India increased to 114 till March 16 with Uttarakhand reporting its first case. The number of people infected with novel Coronavirus climbed to 39 on Monday with a 59 year old woman and man becoming the latest COVID-19 cases in the state. According to the health department, 95 new cases of suspected Coronavirus were quarantined at various hospitals in the state. Italy recorded its biggest daily death toll from novel Coronavirus which has claimed 6,000 lives worldwide.

On one hand some are making money in the name of Coronavirus, on the other there are some business or industry incurring huge losses due to the dreaded virus.  Amid the Coronavirus outbreak many business events, sports programmers have also been postponed or cancelled.