In April, the Federal Government has to destroy around €98.5 million worth of face masks, testing materials and medicines related to the coronavirus because they were past their expiry date or of inadequate quality.
An official document, seen by RTBF and confirmed by L'Echo, states that nearly €25 million of material was lost, including €8.4 million of serological tests purchased in April 2020, €6.4 million of PCR tests and €3.9 million of tubes that the Federal Public Health Service unsuccessfully tried to sell to clinical laboratories.
Additionally, €52 million was wasted on protective equipment: mainly masks that do not meet the quality standards and therefore cannot be distributed by the Federal Public Economy Service. The destruction of all these stocks will cost approximately €1.3 million.
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The Defence Ministry has also requested the destruction of just under 7 million face masks. These are left over from the 18 million masks purchased from Avrox and Tweeds&Coton that were intended for public distribution in May 2020. The value of those mask stocks is estimated at €17.3 million.
The cabinet of Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke was contacted by L'Echo, but declined to comment.
