MONTREAL – Bell Canada said today it has acquired approximately 1.5 million protective face masks, which will be donated to help equip healthcare and other frontline public workers across Canada in the fight against Covid-19.
The N95 and KN95 masks are being donated to the federal, provincial and territorial governments for distribution in every region of the country, said the company in a release this morning.
“Healthcare professionals, first responders and public servants of all kinds are working courageously to keep Canadians safe and well as our country copes with Covid-19, and many have been facing shortages of the protective equipment they need to do their jobs safely and effectively,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO, in the release. “Bell is proud to put our scale and global reach to work to help protect the people on the front lines of public health and safety with this donation.”
Bell said by leveraging its own global procurement network to source personal protective equipment (PPE) for its team members doing critical communications work, the company was “able to acquire an additional 1.5 million high-quality N95 and KN95 face masks, valued at approximately $7.5 million, through multiple logistics partners,” reads the release.
Bell is delivering the masks to the federal, provincial and (in partnership with Bell’s Northern Canada subsidiary Northwestel) territorial governments to enable rapid distribution to priority targets including healthcare providers, first responders and other essential departments and agencies supporting the public during COVID-19.
This donation is the latest among many Bell initiatives to help support the country during the Covid-19 crisis.
