In a sign of the stress that the COVID-19 pandemic is placing upon supply chains and manufacturers alike comes actions likely to provoke geopolitical rifts;
- “US swiped 200,000 3M masks meant for Berlin police” Approximately 200,000 masks manufactured by the Minnesota manufacturing company, and paid for by Germany, were diverted as they were being transferred between planes in Thailand, according to Berlin officials.
- Trump orders medical supply firm 3M to stop selling N95 respirators to Canada. One of the biggest American manufacturers of protective medical gear went to bat for its Canadian customers Friday as it pushed back against a White House order to stop exporting its surgical-grade face masks — mission-critical armour in the war against COVID-19.
- “Turkey seizes hundreds of ventilators paid for by Spain in move ‘bordering on criminality’” Turkey has been accused of seizing hundreds of ventilators and sanitary equipment destined for Spain amid the escalating coronavirus pandemic. Spanish officials said Ankara was holding the ventilators for “the treatment of their own patients”, despite local governments in Spain having already paid millions for them.