Just a small portion of the personal protection equipment (PPE) sent by a Turkish private company did not conform to the standards, a U.K. government spokesperson said in a statement to Anadolu Agency Thursday.
He said the majority passed the test and got the green light to be used in the field.
The statement came after the BBC ran a story claiming that a batch of 400,000 PPE sent from Turkey was “useless” as they did not meet the safety standards.
The spokesperson added that when a private firm wasn’t able to deliver the products on time, the Turkish authorities stepped in and supplied a total of 68,000 gowns. All of them passed the quality check and will be distributed to the personnel who need them.
In the statement, he said the Turkish government was very helpful during this process and accelerated the export permit, as well as helping with the supply of protective gowns. He added that Turkey had previously donated gowns to the country.
The British Ambassador to Turkey Dominick Chilcott said in a series of Tweets that the news stories involving the so-called "useless PPE from Turkey" were not true. He said the U.K. was thankful for Turkey's aid in supplying PPE.
"The majority of the delivered products is still waiting to be tested in the warehouses in the U.K. and Turkey," Chilcott wrote in Turkish.
Previously Turkish officials said that the government was not involved in any stage of the production of the 400,000 PPE that Britain rejected for reportedly not meeting safety standards.
“Out of solidarity with the U.K. authorities, the Turkish government ignored an export ban to authorize this sale. However, no part of the Turkish government was involved in producing, packaging, or delivering the said equipment to the U.K.,” the official added.
The official pointed out that the dispute was between the private company and the U.K., while an official from Selegna Tekstil, which produced the gowns, told the BBC that the company has not received any complaints from the National Health Service (NHS), the British embassy in Ankara, or British government officials regarding the quality the PPE.
