Covid 19: Netherlands retracts 600,000 defective Chinese masks from hospitals

Netherlands : Netherlands government has ordered to retract around 600,000 made in China face masks from the Dutch hospitals after they were found defective and not able to provide any safety against the deadly coronavirus.

The country had ordered around 1.3 billion so-called FFP2 masks from China. According to a news report, the health ministry has recalled 600,000 masks which were distributed to the hospitals.

The masks have been rejected by TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) because they do not meet the safety requirements.

The masks are already distributed among the hospitals. "The mouth masks that are not satisfactory are being retrieved," the Ministry of Health told the NOS. 

"We have no overview of whether defective mouth masks have also been used in hospitals."

Till Saturday, Netherlands has registered 9,762 positive cases of coronavirus, an increase of 1,159 over Friday's total. 

With 93 deaths, the total number of Dutch fatal cases has gone to 639. 

The news comes at a time when Spain and the Czech Republic also reported that China has delivered faulty coronavirus test kits to these countries.