UPDATE - Turkey denies sending faulty medical supplies to UK

UPDATES WITH STATEMENTS BY BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND TURKISH HEALTH MINISTRY, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Tevfik Durul and Ugur Aslanhan

ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) - A senior Turkish official denied reports Thursday that Britain would return 400,000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) sent by Turkey to help the UK fight the novel coronavirus.

“There is no problem with medical supplies that are donated by Turkey or purchased from the country. All of them comply with international standards,” Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran told the Biz10 TV YouTube channel.

“There is no information or data conveyed to us officially,” he said. “We believe that the British authorities will fix this as soon as possible.”

The Turkish Health Ministry also refuted the claim.

The ministry said on April 7, Turkey donated 100,000 protective clothing, 100,000 surgical masks and 50,000 N95 masks to the UK.

"All medical supplies that were donated and provided to the UK from Turkey have CE and ISO certificates. And these documents were previously submitted to the British authorities," the ministry said.

Selegna Textile, which sold protective the PPE to Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), denied the reports.

Mehmet Duzen from the Istanbul-based company said it contacted the NHS on Wednesday and did not receive any complaints.

“The test report of the fabric was received according to the European norms, sent to the customer, the certificates of the production sites were declared and the order was taken, the products were prepared,” Duzen said, reiterating there was no complaint.

- UK statement on media claims

The British government said on Thursday evening that a small number of gowns delivered from Turkey have failed tests in the UK but more have passed tests and they are suitable to be used by health workers.

“We have received part of an order of around 400,000 gowns from a private supplier in Turkey. While a small number of these gowns have failed tests in the UK, more have passed tests making them suitable for use in the NHS,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.

“The majority of items ordered from the private supplier are awaiting testing in the UK and Turkish Warehouses,” it said.

The statement came after some media reports suggested that hundreds of thousands of personal protective equipment (PPE), which were desperately required in the fight against coronavirus in hospitals across the UK and provided by a Turkish company last week, had failed safety tests and they were “useless”.

The claim has been voiced by almost all media organizations a day after the UK reached the worst death toll in Europe and the second-worst one across the world.

- 'Turkish government was extremely helpful'

The statement underlined that the “Turkish Authorities also stepped in to provide 68,000 coveralls when it became clear that an order from a private company was delayed.”

“All have passed the checks and will now be distributed to the frontline.”

Two weeks ago, the British government had made an announcement that 400,000 coveralls would be delivered from Turkey, however, the delivery had been delayed for days due to reasons originating from the private supplier. The delivery only became possible when Turkish government stepped in to eliminate delaying contractual problems.

“The Turkish government have been extremely helpful to us throughout this process,” the statement said.

“They have expedited export clearances as well as helping us to source the PPE coveralls. This is on top of an earlier gift of PPE from the Turkish government.”

The death toll in the UK on Thursday reached 30,615 and it is feared that the fatalities could go up as high as 37,000.