Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Authorities have seized more than five million medical masks that were illegally stockpiled amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The commerce ministry seized 1.17 million masks from a private store in Hail, northwest of the capital, after authorities Wednesday confiscated more than four million masks stored in a facility in Jeddah in violation of commercial regulations, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Sunday.

The ministry said people behind such activities would be prosecuted, and that the confiscated masks would be redistributed to the open market.