1000 spanske helsearbeidere isoleres, brukte defekte kinesiske ansiktsmasker

Christian Skaug

21.04.2020 11:07

Staff from La Paz hospital hold a minute of silence to remember Joaquin Diaz, the hospital's chief of surgery who died of COVID-19, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Madrid, Spain, April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Susana Vera

Ansatte ved La Paz-sykehuset i Madrid holder den 20. april 2020 ett minutts stillhet til minne om sjeflege Joaquin Diaz, en av de flere titalls helsearbeiderne i Spania som er døde av koronaviruset. Foto: Susana Vera / Reuters / Scanpix.

Mer enn ett tusen spanske helsearbeidere er satt i isolasjon, og flere tusen andre må testes for koronaviruset, etter å ha blitt eksponert for det fordi de hadde brukt defekte ansiktsmasker i arbeidet over et tidsrom på ti dager.

Omfanget av problemet er ennå ikke nøyaktig kjent, opplyser den spanske storavisen El País.

The batch of faulty material was ordered to be withdrawn on Friday. There is no exact figure as yet as to how many staff used the items, and the Health Ministry does not know how many masks from the batch of 350,000 to 400,000, according to sources, did not meet the requirements.

De defekte maskene var blitt levert fra et kinesisk firma:

The batch of masks, which was acquired from the Chinese firm Garry Galaxy, was supposed to alleviate the shortage of PPE in Spain. But on Friday it became clear that the material was defective, after having been in use for 10 days – the material was distributed during Easter week, something that further complicates determining who had been using it.

Mangelen på personlig smittevernutstyr har vært en medvirkende faktor til at mer enn 31.000 helsearbeidere har pådratt seg viruset, hvorav flere titalls er døde. Helsepersonell utgjør nesten en sjettedel av smittetilfellene i Spania, og helsedepartementet erkjenner at dette henger sammen med manglende utstyr:

The complaints among healthcare professionals, who account for 15% of total infections in Spain, are widespread. The Health Ministry itself has recognized the link between the infections and the lack of material, in a report it updated on Friday entitled “Scientific-technical information on the coronavirus-19 disease.”