Turkey denies sending faulty medical supplies to UK

A senior Turkish official denied reports Thursday that Britain would return 400,000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) sent by Turkey to help the UK fight the novel coronavirus.

"There is no problem with medical supplies that are donated by Turkey or purchased from the country. All of them comply with international standards," Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kıran told the Biz10 TV YouTube channel.

"There is no information or data conveyed to us officially," he said. "We believe that the British authorities will fix this as soon as possible."

Selegna Textile, which sold protective the gowns to Britain's National Health Service (NHS), denied the reports.

Mehmet Düzen from the Istanbul-based company said it contacted the NHS on Wednesday and did not receive any complaints.

"The test report of the fabric was received according to the European norms, sent to the customer, the certificates of the production sites were declared and the order was taken, the products were prepared," Düzen said, reiterating there was no complaint.

Britain thanked Turkey last month for sending medical equipment to help in the fight against the coronavirus.

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace "expressed gratitude" for Turkey's delivery last week of 250,000 items PPEs, including 50,000 N95 face masks, 100,000 surgical masks and 100,000 protective suits.