Coronavirus updates from the Minnesota business world

3M Co. is ramping up production of its face and respirator masks aimed at hospitals while battling an onslaught of counterfeit products that recently hit the marketplace, company officials said Friday.

"3M is receiving increasing reports of fraudulent and counterfeiting activities involving 3M products," the Maplewood-based international giant said in a statement. "The company strongly condemns any unethical actions taken to exploit the global pandemic."

The company has doubled global production of its highly coveted N95 respiratory masks to 1.1 billion a year, the statement said, and is working to get the new batches into the hands of hospitals and health care providers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. About 400 million of 3M's N95 masks are currently made in the U.S.

Maple Plain-based Protolabs has had an influx of COVID-19-related fast-track orders, said CEO Vicki Holt.

The company, which makes customized products, has an order to ship 10,000 test kits Saturday and 100,000 more soon. It also is making 100,000 ventilator parts for a large medical-equipment firm and two ventilator prototypes for a major university.

Sisters Traci and Lori Trapani, whose Wyoming Machine in Stacy, Minn., has been scrambling to make 10,000 ventilator parts for a medical-equipment customer, took part in a Friday afternoon teleconference with President Donald Trump, who outlined the small-business loans and other options in his administration's relief package. Wyoming Machine also is gearing up for a new rush order for packaging machine parts because so many people are shopping online as stores close or cut back hours.

Christopher & Banks, like many retailers nationwide, has closed its stores through the end of the month as more people are sheltering in place because of the pandemic.

The Pohlad Cos. also closed its Carousel Motor Group dealerships and JB Hudson jewelry stores until April 30. The vehicle service and parts business associated with Carousel will remain open for limited weekday hours. Pohlad will continue to pay employees, the firm said in a statement.

Carousel — which owns Audi, BMW and Porsche dealerships, as well as Coon Rapids Chrysler Dodge and North Branch Chevrolet — is the first major dealership group in Minnesota to close.

The state's MNsure health insurance exchange said Friday it would open a 30-day special enrollment period to help uninsured Minnesotans get coverage as the novel coronavirus spreads.

Lack of health insurance is a potential barrier to patients seeking care if they are ill with COVID-19. Health policy experts fear those barriers could enable the virus to spread faster.

"As more cases of COVID-19 are diagnosed throughout the state, we want to make sure every Minnesotan has the security of health insurance to ensure they can get the care they need if they contract this serious illness," Nate Clark, the MNsure chief executive, said in a statement.