Delayed Masks and Ventilator Exports by China Due To Quality Complaints
New Regulations Have Been Made To Ensure Multiple Quality Checks Before Shipment
After experiencing multiple complaints regarding their export medical supplies from mainland China, there has been a significant shipment of delayed masks and ventilator exports, which is being resolved by the authorities by rechecking and inspecting every shipment of required medical equipment including personal protection gear against COVID 19 epidemic including N 95 respirators and ventilators.
Medical supplies export by China
After being the ground zero for the COVID 19 pandemic, the country suffered brutally due to the sudden onset of a contagious upper respiratory infection, which infected 81, 953 individuals across mainland China out of which 3, 339 died and 77, 525 managed to recover back to their health after going through mild symptoms of COVID 19.
There has been a significant decrease in the number of new COVID 19 cases in mainland China, and multiple cities have reopened completely after going through extreme lockdown for a few months. The country is now helping the rest of the world by supplying medical kits and required equipment due to patient overload and the huge shortage in the medical apparatuses and tools, which are essential during the treatment of COVID 19 as no country was previously prepared to tackle through this new infectious disease. Until now, China has sent help to multiple countries by sending millions of face masks and ventilators, including Pakistan, the United States, and Italy.
Shipment delays in China
Recently, there have been several complaints regarding the quality of the goods which are shipped from China to treat COVID 19 patients. To send the best quality products, the country is experiencing delayed masks and ventilator exports as every batch of goods is being reevaluated before shipment. Depending on the city, delayed masks and ventilator exports is being rushed by manufacturing companies, cargo agents, and traders.
This quality issue was experienced by Europe, complaining about going through multiple industrial respirators whose quality did not meet the standard of care being provided by the hospitals in European countries. Delayed masks and ventilator exports is being experienced by thousands of doctors and medical staff in the United States, Spain, and Russia for necessary procedures after China announced free of cost personal protective equipment, which is causing a huge shortage.
China is known as the world’s dominant producer of surgical and medical equipment which are used across the globe, but due to the COVID 19 lockdown in several major Chinese cities, the production has rapidly decreased, but the usage has massively increased and is the major reason behind delayed masks and ventilator exports with compromised quality.
To compensate for the loss in production over the last few months, the daily production of face masks in China has increased from 10 million per day to 116 million per day in the time duration of four weeks, which is essential to counter delayed masks and ventilator exports in the rest of the world amid coronavirus pandemic.
The Chinese customs agency has ensured that they would thoroughly assess their products before they are shipped out. This might cause some delayed masks and ventilator exports, as no indication of time duration for quality checks have been provided by the customs agency. Multiple medical supply production companies already have an in-house quality check, but due to this new government rule, additions checks are required to fulfill quality demands.
China is currently exporting 11 categories of medical export goods: surgical masks and respirators, protective clothing including gowns and hazmat suits, infrared thermometers, surgical caps, goggles, gloves, shoe covers, ventilators, patient vitals monitors, disinfection towels, sanitizers, and disinfectants.
Even though China is now exporting medical goods to the rest of the world to combat COVID 19, the country has previously imported 2 billion face masks and 400 million other medical requirements for their healthcare workers during the rapid spread of the infection in their country, the main focus on Wuhan as it was the epicenter and ground zero of COVID 19.
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