Canada’s public health authority says around one million
KN95 masks acquired from China failed to meet federal COVID-19 standards for
use by frontline health professionals.
The KN95 is a Chinese model similar to the N95, which is a
crucial type of personal protective equipment used to defend nurses, doctors
and other health workers in the fight against COVID-19.
Eric Morrissette, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency
of Canada, said as a result of this, the Canadian government did not dispense
the non-complying masks to provinces and territories.
The failure of these masks to meet Canadian requirements is
yet another challenge for the country as it fights to secure personal
protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies.
Canada has authorised the KN95 for use as part of the
COVID-19 response, but individual shipments are being inspected.
China has become the source of around 70 percent of Canada’s
imports of PPE, with much of the rest coming from the US, Britain and
Switzerland, POLITICO, a US publication, quoted a senior Canadian source as
saying.
The international race for medical gear, fuelled by
shortages around the world, has led countries to connect with new suppliers and
manufacturers, Morrissette said.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, he added, has been
verifying the quality of purchased and donated supplies to ensure they meet
federal technical specifications for COVID-19.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said two planes sent to China
to pick up shipments of needed medical products were forced to return to Canada
on Monday empty.
Meanwhile, efforts are on to boost local production of
medical supplies in Canada.
Jerry Dias, Unifor’s national president, announced on Friday
that its workers will work with General Motors to begin manufacturing masks for
health workers and for Canadians.
“Unifor members in Oshawa are highly skilled and proud to
step up and make whatever our country needs to get through this pandemic,” Dias
said.
“The fact that Unifor members will help GM produce as many
as a million fabric masks a month, for Health Canada at cost, is an example of
what we can do when we work together.”
The statement added that 50 Unifor members are expected to
begin this work in a few weeks, working at the Oshawa facility in two shifts.
Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing
315,000 workers in every major area of the economy.
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