The pandemic means great strain on the police's work environment.

The chief safety representative Patrik Danielsson tells TT that more than 1,000 reports have been made of incidents and occupational injuries linked to the spread of infection.

At the same time, SVT's review shows that a large procurement of completely new respiratory protection for police, rescue services and ambulance personnel has failed during the 2020 pandemic.

It started a year earlier.

In 2019, the police started a large procurement of new breathing masks, which would replace the defense's old Protective Mask 90. ​​It was available to blue light personnel throughout the country, but from 2018 was not allowed to be used in health care or rescue services because it lacked CE marking.

125 municipalities and other authorities hooked on the new procurement, which was estimated to include 55,000 respiratory protection with peripheral equipment worth hundreds of millions.

The needs varied.

Kiruna municipality estimated that you would need eight masks, Fagersta about 100 and Linköping up to 500.

In December, the procurement was completed, and the police expected to sign an agreement with the winning supplier in January this year.

Pause first - then trash

But that did not happen.

The procurement was appealed and the process was suspended.

Out in the country, the rescue services had just begun to prepare for the new corona virus, and in several places they were annoyed that the police did not inform about the delay.

(See video.)

And now it is clear that the entire procurement has gone in the trash.

The police tell SVT that they will start again with a completely new procurement, and have asked the interested authorities who wants to join.

Some have declined participation, including Hylte, Osby, Eda, Arvika, Nässjö and Vetlanda.

Among those who said yes are Region Västernorrland, Bohus Rescue Association, Uppsala Fire Brigade and Rescue Service Oskarshamn, as well as the municipalities of Eskilstuna, Nyköping, Halmstad, Västerås, Gothenburg, Landskrona, Karlstad, Västervik, Säffle and Nybro.

However, a procurement can take a long time, especially if it is appealed.

During the year, the municipalities were able to use old warehouses of Skyddsmask 90 thanks to a temporary exemption.