Thieves stole almost 50,000 protective face masks intended for medical clinics in Cologne. Police said thieves took the masks from the logistics center for the City of Cologne's clinics. An employee noticed the theft on Monday morning and informed the authorities. Following the theft, the city's crisis management team moved to secure and check all stocks of urgently needed protective equipment for clinics and emergency services. "This is a new quality of theft", a hospital spokeswoman told the news agency DPA. "We're talking about items that normally have a value measured in cents, but apparently there's a market for them now." The spokeswoman said that despite the theft, they were not expecting imminent shortages in the city's hospitals. Source
