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The Quebec government on Monday announced it had issued a loan of nearly $4 million to Medicom to speed up the establishment in Montreal of a factory that will produce “tens of millions” of N-95 masks and Level 3 surgical masks.

The surgical masks are scheduled to go into production in July and the N-95 masks in August.

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The project is expected to create 33 permanent jobs and ease the high demand in the province’s health care system for protective equipment.

The announcement was made by Quebec Premier François Legault, Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon and Health Minister Danielle McCann.

The provincial government is urging Quebec companies able to retool their facilities to produce medical equipment such as masks, gloves, scrubs and disinfectants and to examine what public support they can receive by visiting jecontribue@economie.gouv.qc.ca.

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