As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread, surgical masks have been the hottest commodity in town, with many Singaporeans stocking up on them.
Yet since 31 Jan, a Singaporean man named Adrian together with a group of Vietnamese nationals residing here have been distributing surgical masks on three occasions outside Punggol MRT.
To date, the group has apparently handed out around 17,000 surgical masks, and plans on holding another similar giveaway this Saturday (8 Feb).
When contacted by MS News, Adrian explained that he recently caught wind of news that masks were either sold at astronomically high prices or out of stock in Singapore.
Hence, when he and his Vietnamese wife travelled to Vietnam during Chinese New Year, they reportedly took the opportunity to “buy whatever they (we) can to distribute” to family, friends, and members of the public.
However, Vietnam had also implemented a quota, which only allows each person to buy 2 boxes of masks.
As a result, they had to visit several pharmacies there in order to ‘hunt’ for the masks.
In the end, they brought back 10,000 masks and shipped back another 7,000 on a later date. They spent S$1,700 in total, according to 8World News.
Their motivation?
Adrian claims they were driven by their religious teachings and their firm belief that “humanity stand in times of crisis”.
According to him, around 17,000 masks have been distributed so far during the giveaways:
Other Vietnamese nationals staying in Singapore, and friends with Adrian’s wife will also be contributing more masks for future giveaways.
In a video posted online, the group can be seen lugging huge bags full of masks prior to their giveaway.
Despite the huge amount of masks prepared, the hot commodity was completely distributed within 20 minutes.
Adrian also shared that even though each person was given a maximum of 10 masks, this quantity will be lowered to 5 for future giveaways.
If you missed out on their previous distributions, there’s one coming up this Saturday (8 Feb), 7pm, at Punggol MRT.
Kudos to Adrian and his group of friends for going out of their way to distribute masks for those who need it.
Even though an end to the Wuhan virus outbreak seems distant, it’s kind acts like this that restore our faith in humanity and most importantly, the belief that we will eventually overcome this obstacle, however challenging it may be.
Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
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