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WATCH: Ford says Ontario has a week of PPE left after U.S. blocks shipment of three million masks

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Doug Ford 4
File photo of Ontario Premier Doug Ford. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

Premier Doug Ford said this morning Ontario has about a week's supply of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) in its stockpile after the U.S. blocked a shipment of three million masks to the province yesterday.

Speaking with Global News Toronto, Ford said a shipment of three million medical masks bound for Ontario was stopped at the border on Sunday.

“We had three million masks stopped at the border this weekend coming up to Canada. That’s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable that they’re doing this,” Ford said in an interview with Global News.

This blocked shipment means Ontario only has about a week's supply of masks and other PPE for health care workers.

Ford said he hopes something can be worked out — and exemption for Canada, he called it — between Canada and the U.S. to allow medical supplies to keep flowing. 

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump used the 1950 Defense Production Act to direct the government to buy up N95 respirator masks from 3M and its subsidiaries, and asked the Minnesota company to stop exporting masks outside the U.S.

The company disagreed with this, saying the consequences could have "significant humanitarian implications."


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