Starting from today, the per mask price of regular protective masks has been reduced to 1.5 RMB and KN95 masks 7.5 RMB on the Wechat program 'Suikang', thanks to both an increase in production capacity and a decrease in costs.

You will still need to pay an extra 6 RMB in delivery fees if you choose to have your masks sent by courier.

Since the new lottery system for mask booking on ‘Suikang’ was launched on February 15th, more than 12,642 expats as well as Hong Kong and Macao citizens have made a reservation through the program, among whom 5,617 were selected to purchase masks.

If you want to increase your strike rate under the new rules, choose to accept (接受) the newly-added option ‘服从分配’ after you select the mask type. By choosing that option, you can participate in the lottery for both types of masks, where if you fail to win your preferred masks and there are other type of masks going spare, you will be allocated those.

Convenience for expats and the elderly

The ‘Suikang’ mask booking system has been continuously optimized for the convenience of all Guangzhou residents. Expats living in Guangzhou can now make a reservation for masks with their passport number and English instructions have also been added to the system.

Guangzhou residents visit GPHL’s Jianmin Pharmacy to buy masks. (Photo: Yao Zhihao)

Those aged 65 or over will automatically participate in the lottery all the time after a single successful registration. If they visit the designated pharmacies including GPHL’s Jianmin Pharmacy (健民医药), Guangzhou Medical Pharmacy (广州医药大药房) and Caizhilin Pharmacy (采芝林), the shop assistants will help them to register on the program even if they don’t have a WeChat account. As of now, more than 2,000 elderly residents have successfully made a reservation with this assistance.

Over the past half month, a total of more than 2.42 million people have been selected, and over 17 million masks have been sold. The number of offline drugstores available for making reservations has tripled to nearly 400 and the daily input of masks has doubled as well, now surpassing 2 million.

Authors: Monica Liu, Zoey Huang (intern)

Editor: Simon Haywood