Last updated on May 7th, 2021 at 09:07 am
As many countries struggle in their fight against the Coronavirus, many are complaining over sub-standard medical supplies. Germany, Belgium, and Holland have been the latest countries to reject Chinese-manufactured medical supplies, after the quality of the goods was found to be sub-standard.
Protective masks are one of the key personal protective equipment (PPE) in efforts to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Medical staff need them to protect themselves while treating patients. While ordinary citizens need to wear them when going outside. China is among the world’s largest manufacturing bases for PPE and other medical supplies. “Eleven million masks, were junk,” German Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said on April 24, Germany’s Der Spiegel reported.
The director of a German textile company purchased medical masks from China, who said his employees checked the products and found that they were of bad quality. The filter function of some masks did not work properly, while others had broken elastic cords. The company director canceled the order. The company later found a different Chinese supplier to purchase the masks.
Brussels Times reported that Belgium had to reject three million masks that were imported from China.“Because they did not meet the required quality standards.” “At first glance, there were problems with them. We had them tested. The Federal Public Economy Service confirmed that the [Chinese] supplier had not been able to provide conclusive test certificates. Even more the masks were of unacceptable quality after an additional test in a Belgian lab,” the report quoted Belgium digital agenda minister Philippe De Backer as saying. The Netherlands also recalled 600,000 faulty masks from Dutch hospitals. These masks were part of a shipment of 1.3 million masks that were purchased and imported from China on March 21.
Meanwhile, Dan Harris, a lawyer at the Seattle-based Harris Bricken International Law Firm, posted on his firm’s website on April 21 about scams initiated by PPE suppliers in China. Harris said that his law firm helped research suppliers in China. Above all to ensure that clients who need to purchase PPE are not scammed. In the past few months, the law firm found that some Chinese companies used internet-bought certifications to export unqualified products. While some Chinese exporters were brokers who did not have anything on hand. They would send buyers whatever they can get or take the money and send nothing. Some exporters did not have the authority to export. Even more, employees of a certified companies would sell the products illegally.
