Condom maker Durex has said sales have gone down as the coronavirus pandemic is “having a toll on the number of intimate occasions” around the world, according to The Guardian.
Laxman Narasimhan, the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, the owner of Durex, talked to The Wall Street Journal about the shortage of sales in the condom industry.
“What you see is this virus is having a toll on the number of intimate occasions in the UK,” Narasimhan said.
Narasimhan said condom sales had fallen, in part, because the amount of sex people were having has “gone down a lot in Italy” and been decreased in the U.K. as well. He attributes the drop to social distancing rules preventing the number of casual sexual encounters people can have after meeting in public.
When the U.K. stay-at-home orders first went into effect, the government recommended that people in new relationships figure out whether to move in with one another or quarantine in separate residences.
“If the two halves of a couple are currently in separate households, ideally they should stay in those households," Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for the UK government, said. “The alternative might be that, for quite a significant period going forwards, they should test the strength of their relationship and decide whether one wishes to be permanently resident in another household.”
Karex, the world’s largest condom maker, has shut down three of its plants and expects a shortage of 200 million condoms between mid-March to mid-April.
“It’s challenging, but we are trying our best right now to do whatever we can. It is definitely a major concern – a condom is an essential medical device,” Goh Miah Kiat, Karex’s chief executive told AFP.
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