A huge line of people queues to buy masks in Daegu, N. Gyeongsang region

A long line was formed on Monday in front of the Emart Chilseong store located in Daegu’s Buk District even before its opening time. The situation was not different at the Manchon store in Daegu’s Suseong District. Pictures of people standing in a long line for hundreds of meters trying to buy masks have been shared on social media.

Emart started selling 2.21 million masks in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the mask manufacturer “Filt” on Monday. 1.41 million masks out of the 2.21 million were made available for purchase.

While 810,000 masks were distributed across seven Emart stores in Daegu and the North Gyeongsang Province, 600,000 were allocated at the Bisan Emart Traders store. The mask is 820 won each, and one person can buy up to 30 masks.


Yeun-Kyung Cho yunique@donga.com · Ho-Kyeong Kim kimhk@donga.com