Covid-19: Netherlands recalls 600,000 Made In China masks as they are found defective

Not good despite being certified.

Belmont Lay | March 29, 2020, 09:21 PM

The Netherlands has recalled hundreds of thousands of face masks imported from China after they were found to be defective.

Some of the 1.3 million face masks from China were distributed to health care providers, the health ministry announced on Saturday.

Dutch authorities received the shipment on March 21.

But the health ministry "received a signal that, upon inspection, the quality of this shipment did not meet the required standards," it said in a statement.

"A second test also proved that the face masks did not meet the required quality standards. It has now been decided to stop the use of this entire shipment."

The recall affects 600,000 masks.

Certified masks but defective

The masks had a KN95 certification, indicating that they should filter above 95 percent of particles.

The ministry has assured that "new shipments will receive extra standard testing".

The Netherlands has so far reported 9,800 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 632 deaths.

It is not the only country to have imported defective medical equipment from China to tackle the disease.

Spain announced on Thursday that it would return 640,000 rapid testing kits it had purchased from a Chinese company.

Tests on a batch already imported had found them to have a 30 percent detection rate.

The government stressed that the kits were CE certified — indicating conformity with European standards — and that they had been purchased through a Spanish intermediary.

Shenzen Bioeasy Biotechnology, the kits' manufacturer, had not been officially licenced by the country's authorities to sell medical products, the Chinese embassy in Madrid said on Twitter.

Top photo via Unsplash