Thousands of facemasks sent by China for Italy's beleaguered hospitals have ended up in the Czech Republic in an apparent cross-border imbroglio as Europe, now the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, faces a shortage of masks.

The problem is crucial in Italy, the country currently paying the heaviest price, with almost 5,000 deaths and its hospitals at breaking point.

But the Czech Republic, which is also bracing for a rise in infections, has tightened controls on the export and distribution of such material.

It was unclear on Sunday whether the incident amounted to a misunderstanding, a logistical error, or deliberate attempt to withhold the masks from Italy.

Italian daily la Repubblica wrote on Saturday that Czech authorities seized Chinese masks intended for Italy's hospitals under guise of a sting against traffickers, in an article titled: "How the Czech Republic sequestered thousands of masks sent from China to Italy."

The newspaper cited as a source "a courageous Czech researcher", Lukas Lev Cervinka, an adviser to deputy Jan Lipavsky of the anti-establishment Czech Pirate Party.

Czech police carried out an anti-trafficking operation on Tuesday, seizing 680,000 masks and ventilators from a warehouse of a private company in Lovosice, north of Prague, presenting it as a coup against illegal trafficking in medical devices.

On Friday, Interior Minister Jan Hamacek conceded on Twitter that "unfortunately, after further investigation, it turned out that a smaller part of this seizure was a Chinese donation to Italy".

According to the Czech media, the donation from China represented just over 100,000 masks. Local authorities had announced that 380,000 of the seized masks would be distributed to local Czech hospitals.

"We are trying to understand what a Chinese donation for Italy was doing in Lovosice," Hamacek said, adding the government was in discussions with Italy. "I can assure that there will be no loss to Italy."

"The Czechs did not deliberately withhold this equipment," Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek was quoted by the Czech News Agency.

No Italian officials had reacted to the La Repubblica article by Sunday.

The Czech Republic has recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus cases, but no deaths.

Millions of face masks from China land in Czech Republic
Prague (AFP) March 22, 2020 - A giant cargo plane carrying over 100 tons of medical material from China, including million of face masks, has landed at a Czech airport, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

The Czech Republic, which by Sunday had 1,047 confirmed coronavirus cases including six cured patients and no deaths, has been grappling with a shortage of face masks and disinfectants.

The shortage has led thousands of Czechs to make face masks at home as the state banned people from leaving home without their nose and mouth covered.

The An-124 Ruslan plane, which also carried respirators from Shenzhen landed before midnight Saturday in the central city of Pardubice as part of NATO's SALIS (Strategic Airlift International Solution) programme.

"We are planning another two (Ruslan) flights this month," Czech Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar said in a statement, adding they could take place on Tuesday and then at the end of March.

Czech media said the plane carried five million face masks, two million respirators and other medical material weighing 106 tons in total, while a China Eastern plane that landed in Prague an hour later carried seven million face masks.

Another China Eastern plane with more than a million face masks already landed in Prague on Friday.

Schools, pubs, theatres, cinemas and other facilities are closed across the Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.7 million people.

Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said Friday he expected three planes with medical material to arrive from China every week for at least the next six weeks.

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