BRUSSELS – The European Commission said Thursday it has suspended the delivery of 10 million Chinese masks to member states and Britain after two countries complained about the poor quality of the batches they received.
As part of its efforts to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, this month the EU's executive arm started dispatching the masks to health care workers.
After a first batch of 1.5 million masks was shipped to 17 of the 27 member states and Britain, Poland 's health minister Lukasz Szumowski said the 600,000 items Polish authorities received did not have European certificates and failed to comply with the medical standards required for their distribution. “We have decided to suspend future deliveries of these masks," Commission health