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<h1>Losing face: 6,000 surgical masks stolen from Kobe hospital</h1>
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<p><span class="dateline">KOBE &#8211; </span>A total of 6,000 surgical masks have been lost at a hospital in Kobe, it was learned Tuesday. The Hyogo Prefectural Police is investigating the incident as a case of theft.</p><p>The masks, worth ¥40,000, had been kept at a machine room on the third floor of the Japanese Red Cross Kobe Hospital, officials at the institution said.</p><p><!-- /4973089/article_1 -->
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</div></p><p>Four of the 12 boxes of masks were gone. Each box had 30 packages, which each contained 50 masks. The room is usually locked, the officials said.</p><p>A hospital employee noticed Thursday that some boxes were missing, and the hospital reported the incident to the police station Monday.</p><p>The incident is &#8220;regrettable&#8221; although the hospital has enough masks for its staff, an official said.</p><p><div class="content-related-stories">
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</p><p>The incident has occurred at a time when Japan is seeing a shortage of face masks amid the continuing spread of the new coronavirus originating in China.</p> <ul class="single-sns-area">
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