CHINESE Face Masks Land In Ghana, Amidst Fear of Contamination.

Ghana has today received some 60 metric tonnes of medical supplies including personal protective equipment (PPE) from China, amidst recent recall of similar materials from China by a number of countries.

The PPE consignment, which was routed through the Kotoka International Airport (KIA)  today, Monday, 6 April 2020, will also be distributed to countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Liberia, etc.

According to the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, the gesture was China’s contribution to help alleviate the supply gulf of PPEs being experienced worldwide.

China, itself, has just tasted the bitterness of COVID-19 and is still recovering, but at the same time, many other countries, especially some European countries which have been hard hit, are calling for our help. To be honest, nearly every country in the world has asked for China’s help. In the face of such a huge challenge, we have managed to procure these supplies and get them here in chartered flight when all scheduled flights have come to a halt. It is not easy per se,” Chinese ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang said.

However, some countries have reported faults with these Chinese PPEs and medical supplies for Covid-19. For instance, Spain had had to recall some 58,000 “inaccurate” COVID-19 test kits a couple of weeks ago.

Turkey also received supplies of test kits from China but had to trash them because they claim they were faulty. Dutch officials recalled some 600,000 face masks that didn’t provide an airtight seal, while Australia also found fault with Chinese products, with Australian Border Force seizing around 800,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) products worth $1.2 million in recent weeks.

According to Chinese state media Xinhua, China was producing some116 million masks daily in March, about 12 times as many as a month prior, according to official data.

Critics in Ghana have said these materials should be properly scrutinised by Ghanaians authorities to ascertain their quality and detect any possible contamination, given the fact that the deadly Covid-19 originated in China.