Japan PM Fumio Kishida announces decision to dispose unused 'Abenomasks'

The Japanese government has decided to dispose of unused cloth masks that have been kept in storage. Addressing a press conference, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida informed that 80 million unused ‘Abenomasks’ will be thrown away, reported The Guardian. He stated that he has ordered the officials to dispose of the cloth masks that have been in government stock by the end of the current fiscal year after distributing them to the needy.

The decision has been taken by the government as keeping the masks is proving costly for them, reported Mainichi Japan. The washable cloth masks have been known as ‘Abenomasks’ in Japan after the then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had taken the decision to distribute the masks in 2020 after disposable masks were facing supply issues. The Japanese PM in the press briefing stated that they no longer face mask shortage issues due to recovery in the manufacturing and supply sector. 

Unused cloth masks in Japan

The Japanese government had obtained about 287 million masks to distribute to nursing staff and people across the nation. The government in October had informed that they had over 81 million undistributed masks. Furthermore, the government revealed that they had spent around 600 million to store the unused masks between August, 2020 to March, 2021. As per the Mainichi Japan report, the Japan health ministry found that around 11 million cloth masks were defective. The government had spent around 2.1 billion yen for the inspection of the mask. 

COVID-19 situation in Japan

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as of 10 November, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Japan has reached 1,730,335. The overall tally of fatalities reported due to COVID-19 has reached 18,381. Japan has reported the first known local transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Osaka, according to AP. The family of three had no record of travelling abroad and are the first known case of community transmission of omicron variant in Japan. So far, around 80 people have tested positive for omicron strain in Japan and all of them had tested positive for the new variant upon entry at the airport or coming in contact with the people who had travelled to the country.

(Inputs from AP)