Face masks arrived from China fail tests

A consignment of face masks and personal protection equipment (PPE) that arrived in Finland from China on Tuesday are not up to standard, reported national broadcasting corporation Yle quoting Tomi Lounema, the director of National Emergency Supply Agency,

The equipment was examined at laboratories of the Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT in Tampere.

The masks, however, could be used in care homes by the staff , but not in hospitals, according to the Ministry for Health and Social Affairs.

Lounema on Wednesday at a press conference said that Finland would receive four more plane loads of PPE from the Far East next week, the Yle report added.

Earlier, a large shipment of healthcare materials ordered from China arrived at the Helsinki Vantaa Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

The shipment included two million surgical masks and 230,000 respirators.

The purpose of importing the batch of materials is to replenish the supply of NESA. The cargo plane, filled with surgeon's masks and respirators, arrived in Helsinki from Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong Province.