A delivery of protective masks destined for Germany will probably never arrive ….
The USA intercepted the delivery on the way to Germany and redirected it to its own country. Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) confirmed this to BILD.
Previously, the “Daily mirror” reported.
According to information from “rbb24“It should be an order from the Berlin police. The masks had been ordered from the 3M company.
According to the “rbb24” report, the General Customs Directorate in Bonn has so far no information that the order was actually redirected by the United States authorities or middlemen. The customs directorate is the authority that orders the respiratory masks for the federal government.
Of the WORLD A police spokesman confirmed that an American entrepreneur made a purchase offer after the police order that significantly exceeded the Berlin sum. The masks therefore went there; Berlin will get the money back, however.
The American manufacturer also has its masks made in China. 3M is one of the largest providers of respiratory masks for industry and healthcare. The delivery was to be reloaded in Bangkok and transported from there to Germany by air freight. In Bangkok, the delivery was then “redirected” to the USA, the Berlin police confirmed.
Mask market highly competitive
“The whole world is currently buying protective masks,” Spahn said at a press conference at noon. “Protective masks are now worth their weight in gold.” That is why the market is highly competitive.
The federal government is now organizing the procurement of masks centrally, says Spahn. The import of millions of masks has now started. Airplanes fly from Shanghai to Frankfurt, then the deliveries would be reloaded onto articulated lorries, which are secured by the federal police.
It was only on Monday that Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in the BILD live broadcast that the search for protective equipment, respirators or masks “should not become a fight or even war”.
Clinics would hardly have the opportunity to take care of themselves. The federal government had therefore taken over the central procurement – meanwhile received 20 million – and distributed the goods to the federal states upon arrival, which they then passed on to the clinics.
One lesson from the crisis is that the production of such goods in Germany must be rebuilt.
Masks are missing everywhere
In many places in the capital there is a lack of appropriate equipment, said foster homes, medical practices and fire and police forces in the past few days. e.g. also family doctor Dr. Roland Kramer (47). To protect himself from the corona virus, he is currently wearing a purple rain poncho and ski goggles instead of a white coat. “We have to protect ourselves well so that we can continue working at all,” says Krämer to BILD. “If there is no protective clothing left, you have to get creative.”
It was only on Thursday that Deutsche Bank donated 100,000 surgical masks to the state of Berlin for medical care in the corona crisis.
Similar rumors in France
In France, the regional council president of the French Grand-Est, which was badly hit by the corona pandemic, said in an interview that US officials would remove ordered protective mask loads directly from the tarmac at Chinese airports.
“The Americans appear on the tarmac, take out cash and pay three or four times more for our order, so we really have to fight,” says Jean Rottner, himself a doctor in an emergency room in Mulhouse (Mulhouse).
Many media understood this as if a delivery had actually been snatched away in this way. Later, however, the politician specified on Twitter that his order had arrived in France – but it was still “now common practice”. France had recently ordered a billion masks – including from China.
– .
