German health officials have torched more than 17 million coronavirus masks after they expired.
The huge number of face coverings went completely unused after being bought at the beginning of the pandemic.
Germany’s government was criticised for rushing to spend €6 billion (£5.3 billion) while the whole world searched for protective supplies.
Ministers were accused of using personal connections to secure the purchase but this has not been confirmed.
Ex-health minister Jens Spahn justified his actions at the time by claiming his country was facing supply shortages.
But it emerged Germany was looking for ways to ‘thermally dispose’ of around 730 million surgical and 60 million FFP-2 expired masks by the end of last year.
So far the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has destroyed about 6.1 million of the masks, while a total of 5.5 million have been burnt in the state of Saxony.
The states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania discarded five million and 656,000 respectively.
Some 11 states said they have not yet disposed of any face masks but have plans to do so.
Other regions said they want to destroy more of the federal masks in the future, but are prevented by strict German laws.
When asked when such an approval can be expected, a spokesperson from the health ministry said: ‘The BMG (Federal Ministry of Health) is in regular contact with both the federal states and the General Directorate of Customs.’
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