Pakistan's covid-linked trades get a hit as Covid-19 subsides

Continuing drop in new infections cause investors huge losses

RAWALPINDI:

With a decline in Covid-19 cases in the country, the investors who had thought of making huge profits from the virus situation have suffered heavy losses.

Several pharmacists, as well as well-to-do people, had invested in Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and other equipment to resale with huge profit margins to make some quick bucks. However, with improvement in the coronavirus situation, they failed to do so.

The people have now stopped purchasing facemasks and sanitisers and the demand for both products has taken a nosedive.

The price of the N-95 mask has returned to the original price, Rs150, which had skyrocketed to Rs1, 400 during the peak of the pandemic.

Similarly, the demand for oxygen cylinders and other related equipment to be used by those observing self-isolation at homes has dropped drastically too, as many infected patients who were observing self-isolation at homes have fully recovered.

A supplier of pharmaceutical products, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that several people decided to cash the opportunity and had made huge investments in coronavirus related products when the pandemic broke out in the country.

But, contrary to the expectations, the coronavirus is now waning in Pakistan. Investors assumed that the pandemic would be worse in the country than the west and there will be an infected patient in every house until August.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2020.