Coronavirus: confusion as Chinese face masks bound for Italy end up in Czech Republic

It was unclear on Sunday whether the incident amounted to a misunderstanding, a logistical error, or a deliberate seizure

Czech police carried out an anti-trafficking operation on Tuesday, seizing 680,000 masks and ventilators from a warehouse north of Prague

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Soldiers unload a plane delivering medical and protective gear from China at an airport in the Czech city of Pardubice on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:05pm, 22 Mar 2020Updated: 12:08pm, 23 Mar 2020

Thousands of face masks sent by China for Italy’s beleaguered hospitals have ended up in the Czech Republic in an apparent cross-border mix-up as Europe, now the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, faces a shortage of masks.

The problem is crucial in Italy, the country currently paying the heaviest price, with almost 5,000 deaths and its hospitals at breaking point.

But the Czech Republic, which is also bracing for a rise in infections, has tightened controls on the export and distribution of such material.

It was unclear on Sunday whether the incident amounted to a misunderstanding, a logistical error, or deliberate attempt to withhold the masks from Italy.

Italian daily La Repubblica wrote on Saturday that Czech authorities seized Chinese masks intended for Italy’s hospitals under guise of a sting against traffickers, in an article titled: “How the Czech Republic sequestered thousands of masks sent from China to Italy.”

The newspaper cited as a source “a courageous Czech researcher”, Lukas Lev Cervinka, an adviser to deputy Jan Lipavsky of the anti-establishment Czech Pirate Party.