Japan's government will distribute two cloth masks to each of the over 50 million households in the country in the fight against the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.

The government will provide the masks in stages from the week after next, beginning with prefectures with a large number of infected people, Abe told a meeting of the government's task force over the virus.

He also said the government will distribute masks to care facilities for elderly and disabled people, and elementary and junior high schools.

The masks will be provided using the delivery service network of Japan Post Co., a unit of Japan Post Holdings Co., Abe said. The government utilized the network to send masks to some areas in Hokkaido last month in the wake of a surge in the number of coronavirus infection cases in the northernmost Japan prefecture.

The government will include a plan to buy masks from makers in an additional economic stimulus package to be compiled next week.

Although Japan is expected to secure a capacity to supply more than 700 million masks a month, retailers have faced supply shortages due to surging demand, Abe noted.

Cloth masks are washable and reusable, and therefore are very effective in alleviating the supply shortages, he said.

Abe also said that the government plans to additionally distribute 15 million surgical masks to medical institutions next week.

JIJI Press