China News Service, October 25. According to foreign media reports, a survey conducted by CNN revealed that tens of millions of used medical gloves were imported from Thailand to the United States.

Data map: Medical staff in the intensive care unit are taking care of patients with the new coronavirus.

  A months-long investigation by CNN found that under the new crown epidemic, the demand for gloves has surged, and underground companies have also appeared in Thailand, reprocessing and selling used gloves, and then sending them to other countries.

  Investigations show that, according to import records and dealers who bought gloves, tens of millions of counterfeit and second-hand nitrile gloves have entered the United States-and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The US and Thai authorities are conducting criminal investigations.

  According to CNN, Thai health regulators have conducted at least 10 surprise inspections on merchants selling second-hand gloves in recent months.

People at the agency told CNN that sometimes gloves are washed by hand, then coated with food coloring, and dried in a clothes dryer before selling.

  However, despite the potential risks faced by front-line medical staff and patients, U.S. authorities have been having difficulty controlling this illegal trade-partly because the import regulations for protective medical equipment were suspended at the height of the epidemic-and they are still suspended. .

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told CNN that they have taken “a series of measures to use our experience in investigating, inspecting, and reviewing medical products at borders and domestic commerce to detect and stop those who sell unapproved products.”

  It is not clear which medical staff and patients have used these gloves, nor how many cargo containers containing such contaminated products may be located in US ports.