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Warehouse in Düsseldorf: NRW has to destroy tons of corona protective equipment
Photo: Marcel Kusch / dpa
Ten million protective masks have to be burned in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The reason for this is the expiry date, as announced by the Ministry of Health.
In addition, more than 7.2 million protective gowns will reach their expiry dates this year.
They must also be disposed of.
According to the ministry, most of the smocks come from the manufacturer van Laack.
The Ministry of Health ordered them from the textile company in Mönchengladbach in spring 2020 - for 45 million euros.
The son of the then CDU Prime Minister Armin Laschet had made contact at the time, and there were months of discussions about the award of the contract.
The opposition even commissioned its own assessment of the quality of the gowns - because the clinics supplied had sorted out some batches.
The state government had always emphasized that in the competitive market at the beginning of the pandemic, people were happy to get proper protective materials.
According to the ministry, the so-called “state health protection reserve” includes 7.2 million protective gowns as well as 4.3 million medical masks, around 800,000 FFP2 masks, 4000 KN95 masks and 38,000 protective visors.
The durability of most of the protective visors as well as all KN95 masks and almost all protective gowns in stock will expire this year.
"If there is no retrieval due to the pandemic and the expiry date is exceeded, thermal recycling (disposal) will take place," said the Ministry of Health.
On the other hand, things that have expired or have been sorted out due to quality defects go to the so-called “quarantine store”.
According to the ministry, they will be gradually burned.
Below are:
9.4 million medical masks
1.2 million KN95 masks
1.4 million protective gowns
1 million goggles
728,000 gloves
90,000 test sticks
30,000 protective visors
The stock of corona tests is comparatively low: according to the ministry, the country does not even have 200,000 of them in stock.
"These were and are being made available to health facilities." According to the Ministry of Education, more than 6.4 million tests are still being stored at the state's schools (as of the end of December).
After all: According to the manufacturer, the test kits last 24 months.
fin/dpa
