(Yicai Global) Feb. 5 -- The swift onslaught and spread of the novel coronavirus has fueled the equally explosive growth of demand in China for face masks to ward off the deadly contagion and Shanghai's 17 producers of the protective visors and their suppliers have risen to the threat, cranking out 2.6 million units per day, Shanghai Observer reported today.

A lull in production over China's usually one-week Lunar New Year holiday -- extended three days this year in a bid to contain the epidemic -- during which many workers return to distant hometowns to celebrate with friends and family, produced a bottleneck in supply just as a run on the market for the vizards commonly worn only to protect against air pollution, which is not as chronic in the eastern Chinese megacity as in other parts of the country, has stripped shelves bare of the prophylactic face coverings.

Before the pestilence broke out, the normal output of masks was about 400,000 to 500,000 units per day in the financial and manufacturing hub whose urban area is home to an estimated 26 million residents, making it the largest city on Earth. 

As the epidemic grew, city officials turned up the heat on companies to expand production and requisitioned the 18 million masks they had warehoused. The government further raised stocks via international market procurements.

Shanghai has practiced a system of mask rationing since Feb. 2, with each household required to register with its community committee for a certificate allowing purchase of the visors at a designated pharmacy. Each household is limited to five masks per time, under the rules.

As of midnight, 233 cases of 2019-nCoV had been confirmed in Shanghai, with one fatality and 12 patients released from hospital.

The number of occurrences verified on the Chinese mainland had hit 24,324 overall as of the time of this report, according to China's National Health Commission, which noted that 490 have thus far succumbed to the disease.

Editor: Ben Armour