Medical care minister Martin van Rijn welcomed the first shipment of 800,000 face masks, medical gowns and goggles from China on Monday morning at Schiphol airport, Dutch media report.

The professional FFP2 face masks and other equipment for medical staff has been tested by Dutch experts as part of a deal with the Chinese government.

The shipment is the start of a series of flights scheduled for the next few weeks specifically to import protective clothing. By next week some six million face masks will have have arrived from China and will be distributed to hospitals and nursing home staff.

The lack of protective clothing around the world has given rise to multiple attempted frauds. A cloned website of a Dutch company was at the heart of a scam to con hospitals in Germany out of millions of euros, European police agency Europol said last week.

Dutch police were also able to foil an attempt by a man and a woman, both aged 27 and from Dordrecht, who told Dutch hospitals they could deliver a large shipment of face masks but wanted the money upfront.