Malta spent €55 million shipping in protective gear from abroad – mostly from China – as part of efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 in the first half of the year.
And official EU figures also show how the pandemic pushed the price of PPE up with Malta spending more in seven months than the whole of last year, despite importing fewer tonnes of the kit.
The PPE import bill for January to June came to €55,347,654, for almost 2,500 tonnes of equipment, which became crucial to protect health workers on the frontline when COVID-19 hit in March.
That seven-month bill compares to €39,648,799, which paid for almost double the amount of kit – 4,887 tonnes – during the entire year in 2019.
The bulk of the spending was on PPE from China, the figures show, with some €35 million spent in the first six months of the year, compared with just €9.5 million throughout 2019.
A healthcare worker donning full PPE.In April, just weeks after the first cases were detected, Times of Malta revealed the government had secured a consignment of medical bodysuits from China after a massive shipment bound for Malta was stolen in Turkey.
The shipment was believed to have been sold on an emerging black market for COVID-19 supplies. The government had negotiated with the Chinese government directly to secure the shipment.
PPE is used in hospital settings to stop the spread of infection, and became an important tool in the fight against COVID-19, which is usually transmitted through droplets in the air.
Malta detected its first COVID-19 cases in March. In July, after successfully bring the number of cases down to a handful, the numbers spiked once again, reaching all-time highs in the subsequent months.
Figures published by the government last week also shed light on how much the pandemic has been costing the country.
According to a list of contracts handed out between January and June, €8.5m was spent on COVID-19 testing in the six-month period.
Among other contracts awarded during the first few months that the virus hit were to companies with controversial backgrounds.
Zookeeper Anton Cutajar, who illegally built an animal park, was awarded €2 million for the supply of 50 ventilators and Technoline, a company being investigated by a magistrate over a controversial hospital deal, was awarded €1.6 million, also to supply ventilators.