Germany plans massive burning of corona masks Knife attack on tram: man stabbed to death in Nottingham

In Germany, the federal government plans to destroy at least 755 million corona protective masks by burning them. The mouth caps have now passed their expiration date, the Ministry of Health told the “Welt” on Tuesday.

The ministry is now planning a “customs and waste law-compliant energy recovery”, according to a spokesperson. They must be cremated.

Accordingly, 660 million certified surgical masks and approximately 95 million certified FFP2 masks are affected. There was sharp criticism of the project from politicians – it also targeted former Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), during whose tenure the masks had been purchased.

“Expensive overspending under former federal health minister Jens Spahn has spiraled out of control,” said the paper’s FDP budget expert Karsten Klein. “Mistakes have been made that should not be repeated.” Klein called on states to establish a “rolling system” so that “masks are given to medical facilities before they lose their expiration date.”

Opposition: charges against the government

The opposition voiced sharp criticism. “The massive burning of corona masks by the Federal Ministry of Health is a sign of poverty for the federal government,” Kathrin Vogler, health policy spokeswoman for the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, criticized against “Welt”. It was foreseeable that the masks would no longer be used in many areas after the end of the mask obligation.

Current minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) “should have looked for an alternative solution in good time and distributed the masks on a large scale to medical practices, hospitals or facilities for the disabled,” said Vogler. The facilities then no longer had to order masks themselves and could have protected employees and patients for free.

Tender started

The Ministry of Health has so far already had mouth masks destroyed on a smaller scale, according to Welt’s spokesperson. “So far, about two million surgical masks and about one million PfH have been energetically recycled in Germany,” he said. PfH masks are FPP2 and similar masks.

For the current large-scale destruction, the House of Minister Lauterbach issued a tender at the beginning of May, to which external waste processing companies could register until the end of May. This is evident from documents that the ministry has uploaded to a federal procurement platform.

In addition, most states are planning to burn corona masks or have already done so. This is the result of a “world” survey of all countries’ health ministries. Ten countries indicate that they have burned a total of 57.38 million masks or want to burn them in time. (aeg/sda/afp)