KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The government will be coming down hard on hoarders and resellers of sanitisation products, looking to make exorbitant profits from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has sent demand for such items soaring.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs minister Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi told Malay Mail that he is currently working with several other ministries to crack down on such sellers.

"We will do whatever that needs to be done to protect the interests of the people.

"We will indeed work on clamping down on that kind of profiteering.

"Our ministry has always been against profiteering and this is no different. This is even more important because this is a matter of life and death, so what we want is that people should not profiteer and people should not hoard,” he added.

Panic buying in Malaysia escalated today after the country yesterday saw a sudden spike in new Covid-19 cases.

Pictures and videos of Malaysians heading to their nearest supermarkets and grocery stores to stock up on goods have been making the rounds on social media.

Long queues, similar to the festive season, were seen at most shopping centres, with people loading dry goods into trolleys and emptying shelves as fear grows that the government could implement lockdown measures to combat the infection rate.

Malay Mail also noted that the price of sanitisation products such as hand sanitisers, and disinfectant sprays were being sold for up to triple the price by some.

A check on Facebook Marketplace saw several sellers advertising the products for which demand has been soaring, at exorbitant prices.

In February, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) inspected 2,453 business premises from January 25 till February 11 and detected 19 offences with a compound value of RM67,400 and a seizure worth RM4,343.50, state news agency Bernama reported.

Its then minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail was reported as saying in a statement that of the 19 offences, 16 involved selling above the maximum price, while the rest were penalised for not displaying prices.

He said that face masks (surgery/medical) were regulated goods under the Price Control (Controlled Prices) Order 2009 and the Price Control (Maximum Pricing) (No.2) Order 2009.