Spain has recalled 100,000 FFP2 masks distributed to hospital staff across the country battling the coronavirus (Covid-19).

ACCORDING to Spain’s Health Ministry it has recalled the defective FFP2 masks imported from China because they do not comply with European quality standards. According to Health Minister Salvador Illa, a problem was detected with a batch of masks by health authorities in Aragon and Catalonia. So Illa has recalled them all, so they can be replaced.

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Other regions to have received the defective batch include Andalucia, Madrid, Valencia, Galicia, La Rioja, Castilla y Leon and Castilla-La Mancha. The batch of 68,600 distributed to Andalucia was withdrawn immediately after the warning was received from the Ministry of Health. However, some health departments in certain regions, claim that these masks have been used for several weeks until they were alerted about the recall just recently.

According to the health authorities, the masks were produced by Garry Galaxy in China – a company that was on the approved list of Chinese firms. However, according to health experts the masks are “not adequate” as they don’t meet EU quality standards, with many now concerned that staff could have contracted the virus because of defective equipment.

This is not the first time that Spain has had problems with medical equipment from China. Last month it returned more than 600,000 defective Covid-19 rapid testing kits that it had purchased from a Chinese company after testing revealed they only had a 30 per cent detection rate.

However, Spain is not the only country to have received defective masks. Netherlands recently recalled 1.3 million FFP2 defective masks and returned them to China. According to reports from the Netherlands, the masks had problems such defective filters, or did not close over the face properly.