One Richmond-based company is anticipating the long-term impacts that novel coronavirus could have to its business.
London Drugs’ executives and buyers travel several times a year to China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand to inspect factories, attend trade shows and arrange for products to be imported to Canada, said the company’s president Clint Mahlman.
These products are typically bought months in advance.
“So manufacturing delays and import delays may not be felt until months from now in our markets in Canada,” said Mahlman.
The company, with headquarters in Ironwood, has also been advised by suppliers in China that the country’s factories, warehousing, freight and distribution companies have been closed by the government until Feb. 9, in the southern and eastern regions, and Feb. 3 in northern China.
And some overseas trips have already been affected, said Mahlman, as the company assesses travel and travel medical information from the federal government and health authorities.
As of Wednesday, the virus has infected over 20,000 people, and killed nearly 500. While most of the deaths have been in mainland China and Hubei province — the outbreak’s epicentre — both the Philippines and Hong Kong announced their first death from coronavirus this week.
On Tuesday, B.C. health authorities confirmed the province’s second case of the virus — a woman in her 50s who has family members visiting from Wuhan, China, where novel coronavirus originated in December.
The World Health Organization also announced Tuesday that it has confirmed 27 cases of novel coronavirus, in nine countries, have spread person-to-person.
The Chinese government extended the Lunar New Year holiday as one of its attempts to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Last week, Air Canada announced it would be halting all direct flights from Canada to mainland China until the end of the month. The airline typically flies 33 flights a week from Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto airports to Beijing and Shanghai.
The announcement followed the federal government’s latest travel advisory, which says to avoid all non-essential travel to China, and to not travel at all to Hubei province, including Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou.
The Chinese government has imposed heavy travel restrictions in Hubei province. More than 50 million people in 17 cities, including Wuhan, are on lockdown.
London Drugs — which has stores in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan — isn’t the only company monitoring the virus.
A spokesperson for Ikea, which has a store in Richmond on Jacombs Road near Knight Street, said the company is staying updated on information from local and global authorities, and will act in accordance with their recommendations.
“In the meantime, we have taken preventative measures at all our units such as informing our co-workers and visitors to our locations about preventative hygiene,” said the spokesperson.
As of Jan. 30, Ikea has temporarily shuttered its 30 stores in mainland China until further notice due to the outbreak. Staff have been asked to stay at home with paid leave, according to the spokesperson.
London Drugs has also seen some more immediate effects of the coronavirus.
“We have seen a lot of customers coming to (our) pharmacy looking for masks primarily, especially in the first few weeks when the virus’ existence became more public,” said Mahlman.
Something London Drugs learned from the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, said Mahlman, was to ensure that medical advice and information from public health officials is given to, and understood by, customers, with pharmacists counselling customers on how to prevent the spread of the virus, what symptoms to look out for and what to do if they think they have symptoms.
“When they listen to the advice, they often don’t feel the same need or panic to purchase a mask, given its limited effectiveness,” said Mahlman.
