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Netherlands recalls 600,000 face masks from China due to low quality
- Top-of-the-line N95 masks did not fit well and filters did not function properly, Dutch government says
- It comes after Spain asked for Covid-19 rapid test kits imported from China to be replaced because they were unreliable
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Dutch officials have recalled 600,000 face masks manufactured in China because they did not meet quality standards, the government’s health ministry said on Saturday.
The news shocked frontline medical staff in the Netherlands, who rely on high-quality products to protect them from contracting Covid-19, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said.
Half of the shipment of 1.3 million supposedly top-of-the-line face masks – known as N95 in the United States and Hong Kong – had already been distributed to doctors and nurses treating the most critical Covid-19 patients, the government said.
N95 masks – known as FFP2 in Europe or KN95 in mainland China – play a critical role in health care, as they are supposed to block over 90 per cent of airborne particles that may carry the coronavirus.
The Dutch experience is not the first time that European countries have had problems with coronavirus-related medical equipment manufactured in China.
Last week, Spain announced that hundreds of thousands of rapid test kits sent by a Chinese company were unreliable, following similar reports in the Czech Republic.
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