With COVID cases rising, demand for portable disinfectant products is once more soaring. From bottles of hand sterilizer to alcoholic wet wipes, products that claim to kill viruses are flying off the shelves. With the water crisis also showing no sign of abating, such products are being used in place of water for more and more cleaning purposes.

Bottle after bottle of disinfectant is filled up and screwed tight. This production line has been here in New Taipei for over 20 years.

Lee Wen-ko
FTV reporter
The production line workers are working flat out, and we’ve also got a new nightshift to help us adapt, because since the pandemic began, orders have grown tenfold.

The bottles are full of 75% ethanol hand disinfectant. Workers box the bottles swiftly, ready for shipping to retailers all across Taiwan. The producer has more orders than it can handle, and retailers are deluged with inquiries. Some online retailers have sold out completely.

Huang Mei-ko
Disinfectant producer
When the pandemic is less severe, sales slow down a bit. When new cases pop up, then consumers start to have a sense of the crisis, and because in the past there were shortages, so people fear that and buy more.

The pandemic once more feels tangible within Taiwan’s borders. That makes health items like custom masks a popular wedding favor.

Huang Mei-ko
Disinfectant producer
Now people decide to print some cute profiles of themselves and nice colors on their wedding gifts.

Some couples have chosen to give their guests Taiwan Sugar alcoholic wet wipes as gifts.

In Taichung, Miaoli, and North Changhua, the drought has meant a strict five days on two days off water rationing system. In the last month, the alcoholic disinfectant products sold by Taiwan Sugar and Taiwan Liquor and Tobacco have seen sales jump 10% to 20%.

The Industrial Technology Research Institute says demand for pandemic-related innovations shows no sign of tailing off. Medical industries have seen the fastest growth this year, with the sector worth an estimated NT$130 billion. For many medical technologies, the pandemic will be a boost for business for years to come.