SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk has delivered 1,255 ventilators, an intensive medical machine needed for severe coronavirus patients, to hospitals in California to help fight against coronavirus.
Governor Gavin Newsom, California, and the state health officials provided acknowledgment regarding Elon Musk giving away 1000+ ventilators to California hospitals to help facilitate the patients with COVID-19. The update was delivered during a press conference this Monday.
“I told you a few days ago that [Musk] was likely to have 1,000 ventilators this week. They’ve arrived in Los Angeles, and Elon Musk is already working with the hospital association and others to get those ventilators out in real-time. It was a heroic effort,” stated by Newsom.
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As the outbreak does not seems to stop anytime soon, the experts warned that the U.S. might get out of life-saving devices like ventilators. As per the February report, the estimated number of ventilators in the hospitals is about 160,000, that is in ready to use state while 8,900 more ventilators held in a national reserve.
With that estimated number of ventilators, Elon Musk jumps into the matter, promising that his electric car company, Tesla, will work to help in this critical time. The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, said in a tweet that: “We will make ventilators if there is a shortage.”
Elon Musk has also offered to produce ventilators. Responding to his tweet, a journalist Nate Silver then replied, “There’s a shortage now, how many ventilators you are making.” to which Elon Musk said, “Ventilators are not difficult, but cannot produce instantly. Which hospitals have these shortages you speak of right now?”
Quickly responding to his promise, Elon Musk purchased over a thousand of ventilators from China and air-shipped them to the U.S. for the distribution in hospitals of California. Musk tweeted about this bulk purchase of 1255 FDA-approved ResMed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmation later.
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It also seems like Musk has put his one step forward to help humanity in this pandemic crisis. On this Sunday, he tweeted about mask shipment saying, “We have a mask shipment stuck at LAX. Hopefully, freed up soon.”
The LAX airport has also declared that the mask shipment is clear now. “After some additional investigating, we’ve found that shipment has since cleared for release by the FDA. LAX, U.S. Customs and the FDA are all working together to expedite critical PPE shipments. Glad to hear it’s resolved,” said the LAX airport.
General Motors and Ford will also produce ventilators
Besides Tesla, GM and Ford both have fastened themselves to help create the desperately-needed ventilators to save the United States. “We are working closely with Ventec to rapidly scale up production of their critically important respiratory products to support our country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mary Barra, GM Chairman and CEO.
READ: Tesla is halting production at Fremont factory in response to coronavirus
A spokesperson from Ford, Rachel McCleery, said that “As America’s largest producer of vehicles and top employers of autoworkers, Ford stands ready to help the administration in any way we can, including the possibility of producing ventilators and other equipment. We have had preliminary discussions with the U.S. and U.K. governments and are looking into the feasibility. We all must pull together to help the country weather this crisis and come out the other side stronger than ever.”
For the latest updates about the coronavirus, there is a live dashboard and a meter that delivers real-time information about the deadly virus.
Featured image: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty
