Czech Republic sends masks to Italy after Chinese shipment seized by mistake

The Czech Republic is due to send 110,000 masks to Italy after a Chinese shipment of medical equipment heading to Italy to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak was confiscated by Czech authorities last week.
According to a statement by the Italian Embassy in Prague, following communication between Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio, the Czech authorities will return the seized masks that were originally destined to arrive in Italy, without waiting for the investigation process on the matter to be completed.
‘‘The case is very complicated and concerns several countries. The investigation would thus take many days, but the situation in Europe and Italy can’t tolerate postponements,’’ said Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Ales Chmelar.
Last week, the Czech authorities in an anti-trafficking operation confiscated around 680,000 masks and respirators from a warehouse of a private company in the town of Lovosice. Subsequently, however, it was revealed that a number of the seized medical equipment was destined for Italy, as an aid from the Chinese Red Cross to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, the Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček, said in a statement on Twitter that ‘‘unfortunately the following investigation revealed a small part of these were a Chinese present to Italy.’’
‘‘We are trying to understand what a Chinese donation for Italy was doing in Lovosice,’’ Hamacek added.
Italy, the worst-hit country in Europe by the COVID-19 pandemic, received the previous week its first batch of specialist doctors and medical equipment from China.