Canada will receive 500,000 N95 respirator masks from the 3M company on Wednesday after the manufacturer struck a deal with the US government, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters during a daily briefing on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Tuesday
TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2020) Canada will receive 500,000 N95 respirator masks from the 3M company on Wednesday after the manufacturer struck a deal with the US government, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters during a daily briefing on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Tuesday.
On Monday, 3M announced that a deal has been brokered with the Trump administration to produce an additional 166.5 million respirator masks in the next three months, allowing the company to fulfill Canadian and Latin American orders, a point of contention in the United States in recent days.
"We're expecting 500,000 masks from 3M [on Wednesday] and we're working as fast as we can to get them to our frontline workers," Trudeau said.
Trudeau also announced that as part of the Canadian government's mobilization of industry to combat the novel coronavirus, industry partners will produce 30,000 ventilators in Canada to meet the growing demand. The Prime Minister emphasized that the order is not a reflection of the magnitude of the expected problem.
Trudeau reiterated that Canadian officials remain in close contact with their US counterparts and emphasized the need for a free flow of essential goods and services across the US-Canada border.
In recent days, Canadian officials have expressed concern about reports of shipments of personal protective equipment being intercepted by the US authorities, including a shipment of three million N95 respirator masks for the Canadian province of Ontario over the weekend.
The Trump administration formally invoked the Defense Production Act last week to require 3M to prioritize orders from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency for N95 respirator masks that would have impacted deliveries to Canada.
