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$80 high-performance Japanese masks are all the rage amid MERS fear

An employee of mesh products manufacturer Clever makes "Pittarich," a high-performance mask sold for 9,980 yen (about $81), in the central Japanese city of Toyohashi in June 2015. Since the first MERS patient in South Korea was confirmed the previous month, the mask, boasting a filter made with a 0.06-square micrometer-mesh to shut out viruses, has been scooped up by trading firms and customers in South Korea, China and Thailand, according to Clever. The daily production volume jumped 10 times to about 10,000 from a year earlier. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo