Apart from face masks, another item which may prove to be crucial in our fight against the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is alcohol-based hand sanitisers.

The World Health Organization has repeatedly emphasised the importance of regular hand-washing as an effective way of preventing the spread of Covid-19. Some experts have even said that keeping our hands clean is the best way to prevent an infection, as studies have shown that people are more likely to catch the virus from touching their faces after getting in contact with a tainted surface, rather than breathing in contaminated droplets from an infected individual.

This is why alcohol-based hand sanitisers play an important role during an outbreak, as it helps prevent further spread of the disease.

Unfortunately, such disinfectants have become a rare sight. The shortage doesn’t only compromise the state’s disease prevention efforts, but also affects those who actually need hand sanitisers for daily use, which include patients undergoing dialysis, as well as diabetics who require rubbing alcohol to disinfect their wounds.

In reality, such a shortage should not happen in Thailand, wherein supplies of ethanol — pure ethyl alcohol — are plentiful.

According to the Excise Department, Thailand has a combined production capacity of as much as 7.39 million litres of ethanol each day, supplied by the Liquor Distillery Organisation, seven liquor producers and 26 ethanol-producing plants. The country also has about 100 million litres of ethanol reserves. On paper, such abundant supplies should be more than enough for everyone in the country.

Ridiculously, while alcohol-based sanitisers are a rare sight in pharmacies these days, they could be easily found online, albeit at several times their regular prices.

The government may blame the shortage of face masks on the lack of raw materials needed to make them. But given the abundance of raw material required to make alcohol-based disinfectants, there is no excuse.

Ethanol producers were previously banned from selling pure ethyl alcohol for other purposes, except energy. It wasn’t until the middle of last month when the Energy Ministry allowed the country’s 26 ethanol plants to sell their leftover ethanol to produce alcohol-based hand sanitisers.

But the situation has yet to improve. Hoarding of such products has been widely reported. Recently, police raided a house in Nonthaburi and seized 10,000 litres of alcohol. The extent of hoarding must be huge, considering alcohol-based gels are still in short supply, despite an additional one million litres of pure alcohol released to the market each day.

In light of the rising number of infections, authorities must speed up their work and solve this problem immediately. What the Energy Ministry and Excise Department have done is simply not enough.

The Energy Ministry should reduce production of ethanol fuel to allow producers to release more pure alcohol to the market, since world fuel prices have drastically dropped. This will help bring down prices of alcohol-based sanitisers, which will punish and deter hoarders.

Meanwhile, the Excise Department needs to adjust its regulations to support the production of alcohol-based hand sanitisers. Currently, producers who want to buy ethanol to produce hand sanitisers are required to seek permission from the provincial excise office where the ethanol plants are situated.

These complicated procedures must be immediately eased.