The Dutch government has ordered the recall of 600,000 face masks imported from China after discovering that the items failed to meet the safety requirements. The Netherlands claimed that the masks failed to filter out the coronavirus from passing through the face masks.
According to Holland's Ministry of Health, the face masks supplied by China were not satisfactory and ordered a retrieval by the Dutch government for recall. The NOS reported that they failed to meet safety standards as it did not fit the faces of health professionals properly which put doctors and nurses at higher risk of contamination while treating patients of the deadly virus.
It was revealed that the health workers claimed to have rejected the masks automatically since they did not close properly and that particles could easily pass through them. Hence, they rendered useless and were not used by personnel in the hospital. It was also declared unsafe for use by the public.
Like its European neighbors, Netherlands has imposed strict social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Earlier this month, the country's Prime Minister Mark Rutte ordered the closure of schools, restaurants, and bars to implement the mandate and impose an enhanced quarantine among its residents.
This week, Spanish microbiologists also claimed that test kits for the virus were also faulty particularly those that were brought from China. Studies on the kits revealed that they only had 30 percent sensitivity and did not correctly identify persons affected by the disease and that most patients who were carriers of the virus tested negative on these kits.
Medical professionals from the Czech Republic mirrored the sentiments of its European neighbors and claimed that test kits supplied by China into its country failed to match efficient standards.
Turkey also raise similar issues when its speaker held a news conference last Friday. According to the statement, rapid test kit samples supplied by China did not meet the country's effectiveness standards. However, the health minister of Turkey claimed that it would shift suppliers and opt for another Chinese supplier instead.
France, on the other hand, claimed that more than a billion face masks from China have yet to be tested for their effectiveness. At present, France's Health Minister Olivier Veran is yet to announce if it will cancel its orders from Chinese suppliers.
The Netherlands also announced that any medical shipments perceived to help contain the virus would undergo testing before the government would accept its use. The recall was imposed on 600,000 of the FFP2 face masks out of the 1.3 million supplied by China.
