Berlin – FDP leader Christian Lindner wants to make the procurement of protective masks in the corona crisis easier with a “national airlift”.
«Why don’t we pragmatically create a national airlift to transport materials produced in China to us? Instead, many Lufthansa aircraft is on the ground and the approval of imported products is taking place, ”Lindner told, “ Welt am Sonntag ”. He expected the German state to have reserves for such emergencies. “We have that with cereals and peas and oil – so why not with protective masks and medication?” He had nothing against regional production, but then the site conditions had to be improved.
The Presidium of the German Association of Cities was concerned about the continuing shortage of urgently needed ventilators, protective clothing, and respiratory masks. The federal government must ensure that these are available throughout the country and distributed appropriately.
According to the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soder, “a national emergency production” is required for better equipment with protective masks, he said in the “Bild am Sonntag”. “In the long run, it is unacceptable that we have to defend ourselves against the wild west methods of some countries when buying protective equipment on the world market.” All of this is a great test of character – also for international relationships.
Bottlenecks exist in Germany, especially in protective clothing and breathing masks. To a large extent, they have to be procured on the world market, where there is enormous competition. Again and again, there are reports that the United States is buying protective material ordered from other countries at a multiple price.
Berlin health senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) wants to use the Bundeswehr to transport protective masks from China to Germany. Kalayci told the “Berliner Morgenpost” (Sunday edition) that she had made a request for mutual assistance. “We are currently purchasing new masks and are expecting a delivery from China,” she said. “The problem is that we don’t get them transported to Berlin.” She appealed to Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) to agree to the request. “The Bundeswehr would have to take care of the transport – and fly the protective clothing to Berlin.”
The Berlin Senate is currently waiting for 400,000 protective masks to be ordered from Asia. However, according to the Senate, a first batch of 200,000 masks has disappeared at the airport in the Thai capital Bangkok. The reason was unknown on Saturday, the Senate is investigating, it was said.
According to Airbus, an aircraft from China with around four million protective masks landed in Hamburg on Saturday evening. The material flown in as part of a regular “Airbus Airlift” that has now been set up should now be handed over to Spain, France, Germany, and Great Britain to fight the corona pandemic, the aviation group said. In the past few days, the company has already organized several flights between Europe and China to equip numerous European hospitals with around six million masks, it said.
In Germany, more than 91,100 infections with the coronavirus were registered by Saturday evening (previous day at 8:15 p.m .: more than 85,100 infections). This is the result of an evaluation by the German Press Agency, which takes into account the latest figures from the federal states. At least 1316 people infected with Sars-CoV-2 have reportedly died nationwide so far (previous day at 8:15 p.m .: 1150). Several Germans died abroad in connection with a corona infection.
