SINGAPORE— Face masks, eye drops and air purifiers have been flying off the shelves as Singaporeans sought various ways to cope with the latest bout of haze, which has forced organisers of a road safety carnival to call off its opening day today.

Shell Singapore’s Family Road Safety Carnival was expected to attract more than 500 participants, including children and the elderly, on its first day, but its organisers said yesterday it was cancelling the activities due to “the haze and poor air quality”.

The carnival was scheduled to be held at the Road Safety Community Park @ East Coast till Saturday. The organisers will assess the situation on a daily basis for the remaining days.

Meanwhile, pharmacies were running low on their supply of face masks. For example, 3-ply face masks were sold out at almost all of the outlets along Orchard Road when TODAY visited the pharmacies.

Indonesian tourist Hiro Uozumi, 26, who was spotted wearing a face mask in Orchard Road yesterday, said he arrived in Singapore on Monday and bought a mask because of the “very bad” air. Nevertheless, he added that the haze did not put a damper on his holiday as he was still able to shop in the air-conditioned malls.

Due to the high demand, Ms Margaret Lim, 50, was unable to purchase 3-ply masks. She eventually settled for N95 masks for her two teenage children who are going to Universal Studios Singapore today. She added that she had visited pharmacies at Northpoint in Yishun and Sun Plaza in Sembawang but was told that the masks were sold out.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, a spokesperson from Dairy Farm Singapore, which runs the Guardian pharmacy chain, said “an unprecedented surge of 1,000 pieces” of N95 face masks were sold on Monday, when the Pollutant Standards Index hit unhealthy levels for the first time in about three years. She added that sales of the masks so far this week were already “seven times” those of last week.

Watsons Singapore’s Merchandising and Marketing Director Micheas Chan said that, since the latest bout of haze hit on Friday, it has sold more than 2,500 masks and 1,000 eye drops each day.

There were also brisk sales for air purifiers. Courts Singapore’s Merchandise Director Steve Church said the sales of these items tripled week-on-week, while e-commerce site Qoo10 said the sales of both face masks and air purifiers doubled overnight on Monday.