Around 2,000 surgical masks have been stolen from a hospital in the southern French city of Marseille in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak, health authorities said Tuesday. The masks were pilfered from a part of Conception hospital that is accessible only to staff and patients who have undergone surgery, the Marseille hospitals authority (AP-HM) told AFP. It assured that the hospital had enough masks to continue operations as normal, but that it had ordered more and taken steps to secure its stocks of both masks and sanitising hand gels. Macron said they would be reserved for coronavirus patients and health professionals. Face masks have also caught the eye of thieves in Japan, who made off with some 6,000 masks from a hospital in the western city of Kobe in mid-February.

Source: Punch March 03, 2020 17:03 UTC