At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the Ministry of Health bought masks for billions. For many, the expiry date has passed. They will now be destroyed.
The federal government apparently wants to destroy masks en masse. Specifically, it is about material that was bought in the first few months of the corona pandemic, as the “Spiegel” reports. The Ministry of Health has already started the first tenders, as it has announced.
According to the department, around 730 million surgical masks and 60 million FFP2 or similar half masks are initially affected. With these 800 million copies, the expiry date has now expired. According to the report, one in five of the masks procured since March 2020 has not been delivered due to quality defects.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the Health Minister under Minister Jens Spahn bought around 5.8 billion masks for six billion euros. As the report goes on to say, the 60 million half masks that have now expired include those that had been tested by the ministry after a controversial, slimmed-down procedure. As a compromise in the grand coalition at the time, these were not extradited but stored in the national emergency reserve.
