SYDNEY/BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The rising alarm over COVID-19 spreading in China was felt in pharmacies in Hong Kong, Macau, and in some neighbourhoods in Australia, as people hunted for fever medicines and virus test kits to send to family and friends on the mainland. Several shops have since imposed limits on how much customers can buy, and drugmakers are ramping up production. They like to hoard medicines before they even get sick," said a doctor in Shanghai. "I have friends in Beijing who asked me to send over some flu medicines and rapid tests. And the government-backed Sinopharm Group has tripled daily production capacity of key drugs, state run CCTV reported, due to a sharp increase in demand for medicines to treat fever and cough symptoms.

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