At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the country stashed away millions of masks, gowns and gloves. Some are kept in reserve, but many batches will soon exceed their sell-by date. Including protective gowns, which had been debated for months.
According to the Ministry of Health, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia currently stores around 10 million protective masks that have to be burned. In addition, this year more than 7.2 million protective gowns will reach their use-by date, which will then also have to be disposed of. According to the ministry, most of the smocks come from the manufacturer van Laack.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the textile company from Mönchengladbach got in touch with the state government through the son of the then Prime Minister Armin Laschet. In spring 2020, after examining the offer, the Ministry of Health ordered 10 million gowns for around 45 million euros. There were months of discussions about the award of the contract. The opposition even commissioned its own report on 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. First they were collected in a central warehouse at the Düsseldorf exhibition center and distributed from there. At an on-site visit in June 2020, Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann presented pallets full of masks, disposable gowns and disposable gloves.
In the meantime, the protective materials are stored decentrally by the country. The 7.2 million protective gowns also belong to this so-called “state health protection reserve”, which was created for a new pandemic outbreak. According to the ministry, the emergency reserve also includes 4.3 million medical masks, around 800,000 FFP2 masks, 4000 KN95 masks and 38,000 protective visors. Gloves and disinfectants are no longer in stock.
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.
In the so-called “quarantine store” there are already things that have expired – or have been sorted out due to quality defects. According to the ministry, they will be gradually burned. Below are:
On the other hand, the number of corona tests is comparatively low. According to the ministry, the country has 194,400 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 in the country’s schools (as of the end of December). According to the manufacturer, the test kits last 24 months.
