FINDLAY, Ohio — Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. and Group Michelin have pledged to supply surgical face masks to help keep medical personnel safe in their fight against COVID-19.
Cooper, through its Cooper Tire Foundation, said it is contributing more than 200,000 surgical face masks — a combination of KN95 and single-use surgical masks — to not-for-profit hospitals and health care organizations.
Approximately half of the masks are earmarked for New York City. Cooper asked Mavis Discount Tire, a longstanding customer, to assist in selecting the appropriate recipient in New York; Mavis selected St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx as the recipient of approximately 110,000 masks.
The remaining 90,000 surgical masks are being distributed among health care organizations in the local communities where Cooper has operations within the Americas, including: Clarksdale and Tupelo, Miss.; Texarkana, Ark.; El Salto, Mexico; and Findlay.
Michelin, through a series of tweets on April 6, said it had ordered "tens of millions of masks" to supply local health authorities and priority public services in the regions where Michelin is located.
The company also said it's preparing to produce around 400,000 surgical masks per week in Europe and the U.S. to meet the needs of employees and the communities in the countries/regions where it is based.
Michelin did not elaborate on the tweets.