In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, hospitals around the country were deceived by shipments of counterfeit masks. Federal authorities are investigating these incidents, including a $1.8 million sale of bogus face coverings to the Cleveland Clinic last year.
Officials are examining a Pennsylvania company that sent more than 400,000 masks to the Clinic, as well as boxloads to healthcare providers in Connecticut and Delaware, records show. The Clinic issued more than 50,000 of the masks to its healthcare workers before learning they were fake.
Some Clinic employees tested positive for the coronavirus after using the counterfeit masks while working on high-risk wards earlier this year, according to a court filing.
For months, authorities have indicated that hospitals across the country have been hit by counterfeiters profiting off the pandemic. But the court documents, filed by federal prosecutors in Cleveland and New Haven, Connecticut, offer the first detailed accounts of one of the largest investigations into the counterfeit masks and how health care providers were duped.
Read the article in its entirety at Cleveland.com.
