Swedish Man Gives Away 40,000 Face Masks To Hospital In the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic

When Johan Andersson, the logistics manager at Ikea in Kållered, Sweden, found 40,000 face masks in a storage room, he decided to give them all away to the nearest hospital.

When Johan read about the current lack of oral protection in the health care system yesterday, he suddenly remembered seeing boxes with face masks in the storage room many years ago. When he arrived at work this morning he decided to look for them.

About thirteen years ago, Ikea bought a large stockpile of face masks for preventive purposes in connection with the bird flu. Since then, the masks have been more or less forgotten in a storage room at Ikea in Kållered.

“I came to realize that we have a lot of face masks here that were simply forgotten. I acted on pure instinct: went to work this morning, packed the car full and went straight to the emergency room at the Sahlgrenska Hospital,” Johan says.

“They were overjoyed, they only had half a box left. They got 40,000 face masks, all the boxes we had. I just said, ‘do what you want with them’,” he continues.

In spite of the effort, he won’t call himself a hero, though.

“No, no, those who work in the health care sector are the real heroes, given how hard they work and what great risks they are exposed to. Can we or I help them in any small way it is good, but they are the heroes,” he concludes.