Hanoi Transport Services Corporation (Transerco) have supplied masks to passengers since Thursday.
Nguyen Viet Hung, deputy director of Transerco’s Yen Vien Bus Company, said that double-decker buses attract many foreigners.
Bus drivers have to wear masks.
Nguyen Nhat Cam, the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control said masks need to fully cover the nose and mouth to help stop the spread of disease.
Free masks are also given to passengers who travel from Noi Bai International Airport to Hanoi’s inner-city districts.
Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung has urged municipal agencies to store between 15 and 20 million medical masks to cope with the possible outbreak of a new deadly Coronavirus in the context that three Vietnamese people were tested positive for the deadly virus.
Mask prices have rocketed due to the high demand.
A box of 50 medical masks are often sold at VND70,000 (USD3), but the price has doubled. Meanwhile, anti-superfine particles masks have even seen much higher prices.
An owner of a drugstore in Hanoi’s Ha Dong District said that she sold up to around 4,000 masks on Thursday. She has to urge mask agents for the supply to meet demand; however, their providers have run out of the product.
Masks are bought at higher prices from agents so chemists have said they have been forced to raise their prices by 20-30%.