According to Assignment Review and SVT Nyheter's survey, on March 15, the National Board of Health ordered 300,000 copies of the Chinese respiratory protection which must also have had invalid or false certificates from two now-infamous companies, Italian ECM and Polish ICR.

And 50,000 face protection went to Norrbotten and here they have been used in health care and in municipalities ever since.

Failed in test

But the Stockholm region tested the respiratory protection S. sangso from Homar Bio-Technology in Guangzhou and concluded that they did not measure up.

They should filter out at least 94 percent of the small water droplets that the corona virus can spread through, but they let through much more.

The National Board of Health therefore withdrew the respiratory protection on April 8, but a new state test showed positive figures and on May 22, the Swedish Work Environment Authority gave an exemption for the respiratory protection to be used again.

On June 23, the product was tested again, this time by the Swedish Defense Research Institute (FOI) and the result was not only unsuccessful, but purely unhelpful.

Respiratory protection permits between 22 and 45 percent of the small water droplets - up to seven and a half times more than the maximum six percent.

Remain in storage

However, the Norrbotten region continues to use the product in hospitals and other health care facilities in the county.

- We did not know about the two tests where the respiratory protection failed and certainly you feel a certain concern when there are different tasks, but we trust our supplier the National Board of Health and the Work Environment Authority. We continue with respiratory protection, but we have demanded that the National Board of Health should check this and come back to us, says Anders Blomqvist, Head of Operations for Administrative Support and Development at the Norrbotten region.

The region received 50,000 respirators in the spring and 30,000 copies are in stock today.

- We have made sure that we stopped them from delivery. If there is a new message from the National Board of Health and Welfare, it will be easier for us to manage the practical with regard to returns, but the protections that are available in the business can be used because they are tested and clear, says Anders Blomqvist.