300,000 coronavirus masks sent to pregnant women in Japan may be faulty - reports
28/04/2020 07:18
TOKYO, April 28 (Reuters) - Some 300,000 coronavirus masks
sent to pregnant women in Japan as part of a government handout
have been found to be faulty, media reports said, the latest in
a string of complaints about how the government has dealt with
the pandemic.
The efforts of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to
distribute protective cloth masks in its fight against the
coronavirus have been marred by complaints about mould, insects
and stains in a number of the masks handed out so far.
Just days after it began supplying every household with two
washable, reusable masks at a total cost of $430 million,
complaints emerged of soiled or defective products, many of them
from pregnant women.
By Tuesday, the number of defective masks distributed to
pregnant women had risen to 300,000 out of 500,000, public
broadcaster NHK reported.
The masks are being sent out in order of priority, with
pregnant women and care homes for the disabled at the head of
the list, though private households in Tokyo are also starting
to receive theirs.
The Health Ministry was not immediately available for
comment, but Health Ministry Katsunobu Kato told a Tuesday news
conference the safety of all the masks would be verified.
"It's of top priority to guarantee the quality of the masks
so pregnant women can use them with relief," he said.
The government asked five companies to manufacture the
masks, and had originally said only three - Kowa Co Ltd
7807.T , Matsuoka Corp 3611.T and trading house Itochu Corp
8001.T - were providing some for pregnant women.
Itochu last week said it was recalling some of its
undistributed face masks following reports of defects, as did
Kowa, which said it would also tighten inspections at its
manufacturing plants. Matsuoka Corp was not immediately able to
respond to requests for comment
On Monday, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said the
government had verified that an additional company, Yusebio, had
also supplied masks which were sent to pregnant women.
According to Japanese media, the company, located in
northern Fukushima prefecture, normally imports wood chips for
use in biomass energy production and has five employees.
In February, the company imported a large number of masks,
originally intending to sell them locally, but was subsequently
contacted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry about
purchasing them, the company's president was quoted by the Asahi
Shimbun daily as saying.
"There is no problem with the quality of our masks," the
company president was quoted by NHK as saying. The firm could
not immediately be reached for contact.
Asked about the procurement of the masks and how the firms
had been chosen, Suga told a news conference that everything had
been handled appropriately.
"There was an urgent need for the masks, so the government
asked around broadly," he said, without giving further details.
Masks remain a sought-after item in Japan.
Sharp Corp 6753.T said in a statement on Tuesday that 4.7
million people applied for 40,000 boxes of face masks.
Last week, overwhelming demand crashed the Japanese
electronics firm's website soon after the company started taking
orders online. It then changed to sell the masks through a
lottery to avoid more crashes and said it was ramping up
production to meet demand.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Additional reporting by Makiko
Yamazaki; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
((elaine.lies@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-4563-2748; Reuters
Messaging: elaine.lies@thomsonreuters.com))