As temperature rises, race for cool masks heats up

By Bahk Eun-ji

Consumers are once again complaining about a shortage of face masks ― this time a new type that is cheaper and allegedly easier to breathe in than ones already available, and is primarily designed to block exhaled water vapor.

Mask manufacturer Welkeeps began sales of “saliva droplet prevention” masks Monday at 9 a.m., but its inventory was sold out in less than 20 minutes.

A new type of “saliva droplet prevention mask.” Yonhap

Consumers who had been accessing the website even before the sales time quickly pressed the purchase button at 9 a.m., but the payment process did not proceed smoothly as the server was overloaded.

“Access Delay and Error messages keep popping up on the Welkeeps website, and while repeating this process, the masks have been sold out,” said Park Kyung-hwan, a customer who tried to buy one.

Welkeeps expanded its sales channel to Naver Store, as a countermeasure after its online mall shut down Friday, but this was no different. On the first day the manufacturer began selling the masks, 7.8 million people logged into the online mall at the same time, crashing the server.

The vapor-blocking masks are sold for 500 won ($0.42) per sheet and consist of three pieces per pack, and the daily purchase limit is 10 packs (30 sheets) per person.

The newly approved ultra-thin masks are designed to be more breathable than KF94 ones priced at 1,500 won each, while filtering out respiratory droplets. They are similar to conventional surgical masks, but are designed specifically to provide higher levels of resistance to airborne liquids rather than airborne solids.

Demand for the thinner ones has been growing recently as warmer weather makes it uncomfortable for people to wear thicker KF94 and KF80 masks.

Accordingly, consumers began to request the government come up with a distribution system that allows people to purchase three to five masks per week on designated days based on their birth years to meet demand. In addition they also requested the government only allow pharmacies and convenience stores to sell them. It is pointed out that this situation will continue in the future, as the masks had sold out early in the first and second days of sale.

However, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it had no plans to put the new type of masks under the government's distribution system, during a recent regular briefing. The food and drug agency designated the masks and approved nine products manufactured by four companies in order to cap prices.

“By the end of the month, we plan to help them produce 1 million per day,” a drug safety ministry official said.