Fever medicine shortage wreaks havoc in China; understand

An unprecedented wave of Covid-19 infections in China has triggered widespread drug shortages as people scramble to buy fever pills and pain relievers to alleviate flu-like symptoms.

Panic buying has spread beyond mainland China’s borders, with generic versions of Tylenol and Advil sold out at pharmacies in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and even Australia, prompting some local pharmacies to limit sales.

Even home remedies like canned peaches are being snapped up by people looking for ways to fight Covid.

The situation reflects the observed shortage in the United States and Canada of children’s pain relievers, which are in high demand due to the proliferation of respiratory viruses.

The health chief of Hong Kong, a special administrative region with a government system separate from the Chinese mainland, urged the public to refrain from hoarding cold medicine, urging them “not to overdo it”.

At five drugstores in the Wan Chai shopping district, the drug Panadol, the local brand of Tylenol, has been out of stock for two weeks, vendors told CNN. One seller, who gave his name as Simon, said the shortage was due to buyers buying in bulk to send to their friends and relatives on the mainland.

When his shop manages to get some supply, he can deliver it to longtime customers in China through a complex process that takes about two weeks, costing between HK$150 (US$19) to HK$200 (US$26) for 2 kg.

“We send the drugs by courier to Macau, where our agents collect them and then deliver them by hand across the border to Zhuhai,” he said, adding that couriers must be quarantined once they reach the mainland. Macau is another special administrative region of China, while Zhuhai is a city in southern mainland China with which it borders.

Current rules do not allow drugs to be shipped directly from Hong Kong to mainland China, according to sellers. Sending agents directly from Hong Kong, which also shares a land border with the mainland, is not feasible due to a lack of available agents, Simon said.

In Macau, the medicines regulator last week ordered pharmacies to limit the purchase of pain relievers, fever medicines and antigen test kits. The order came after residents complained of empty shelves when looking for cold and fever medicines, according to Exmoo News, a local newspaper.

Supply shortage in Taiwan, Australia

China is facing its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, with analysts at investment bank Nomura describing the situation as “chaos across the country”.

“In all of this, a big question is whether the current reopening was planned,” analysts at Capital Economics said in a separate note. “It appears that the broader state apparatus did not see change coming.”

On Monday, national authorities began announcing the first Covid-related deaths since the easing of pandemic restrictions on Dec. 7. Only a few deaths have been reported, even as posts on social media point to a surge in demand at Beijing funeral parlors and long queues at the city’s hospitals and fever clinics.

With health services overwhelmed, Chinese citizens have turned to personal networks around the world to secure Covid supplies.

A journalist from CNN visited a dozen pharmacies in various Taipei districts on Tuesday night, unable to find a single box of Panadol. Lin, a clerk at the Kawaki Drug Store downtown, said demand has increased over the past two weeks.

“We have always faced a shortage of Panadol since the Covid-19 outbreak, but the situation has become much more acute,” he said. “Some customers told us that they wanted to send the pills to their relatives and friends in China, given the situation there.”

I Li-chen, a pharmacist from Xinyi District, Taipei, said her pharmacy has recently received a lot of inquiries about Panadol pills.

“Some people wanted to buy the pills because they wanted to send them to relatives in China, while others needed them because they had to visit China soon,” she said.

Even in Australia, which has cities with large populations of ethnic Chinese residents, some concerned Chinese Australians have begun sending over-the-counter cold and flu medicine to family members in China, according to ABC News.

Source: CNN Brasil

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