London: Condom sales had dropped in the United Kingdom and rest of the world as the coronavirus lockdown is taking a toll on the number of intimate occasions, said the maker of Durex Condoms.
Reportedly, the amount of sex people were having has fallen in the UK and Italy- the worst COVID-19 hit countries, as people stopped having casual hookups.
Laxman Narasimhan, the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, the British household goods company that bought Durex in 2010, told The Guardian that the condom sales had dropped as people are unable to have as much sex because of the strict social distancing and stringent lockdown rules.
“What you see is this virus is having a toll on the number of intimate occasions in the UK,” he added. Focusing on deteriorating mental health due to the lockdown, Narasimhan added that young people in the UK were having significantly less sex than usual post the March 23 as the lockdown triggered anxiety and also led to less sex between established couples.
During the initial days of the COVID-19 lockdown, the UK government told people in new relationships they had to decide immediately whether to take their partnership to the next level and move in together or quarantine themselves separately, states The Guardian report.
Meanwhile, Reckitt Benckiser said that the condom demand is expected to recover when the lockdown ends and said its factories would not scale back production. Mentioning about China, Narasimhan added that the condom demand in COVID-19 epicentre has recovered as soon as the lockdown restrictions were eased.
Earlier, there were concerns of a global condom shortage as there
is a strict lockdown in Malaysia which is one of the world’s top rubber
producers and a major source of condoms. Karex, the world’s largest
condom producer has also warned of a global condom shortage after
closing three of its factories.