Taxpayers are forking out nearly £4million a week to store PPE that may never be needed.
More than 15 billion pieces of gear including gowns, gloves and masks have been stockpiled.
UK suppliers and warehouses hold 8.6 billion, and 5.5 billion are in 12,000 shipping containers. Nearly 10% of what the Government bought is still in China.
Weekly fees for storage there and here come to around £3.8m.
Officials this week revealed some protective equipment would be burned to cut storage costs.
It comes as it was confirmed the pandemic inquiry will probe handling of key Covid contracts.
Official figures show orders for 32 billion items of PPE at the start of the crisis. Health department officials quizzed by MPs this week said some supplies were being donated abroad, including to Ukraine.
Hundreds of millions of items bought were unusable.
The Dept for Health said it had been reducing its logistics costs and was looking at selling, repurposing and recycling excess stock.
