Tesla offers free ventilators to hospitals in desperate need from coronavirus, Musk says
Hospitals are in desperate need of ventilators, a critical piece of medical equipment used to treat coronavirus patients. The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States has surpassed 175,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.
But Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offering a possible solution. Musk tweeted that his company will ship extra FDA-approved ventilators to hospitals in need, free of charge.
“Device & shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse,” Musk tweeted Tuesday.
Tesla has not clarified the number of ventilators it has, Reuters reported. They also did not mention how the company plans on prioritizing requests.
The announcement came just a day after Medtronic, a medical device company, released specifications for a basic ventilator model to any company that wants to make them for hospitals battling the shortages brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Forbes. Medtronic is in discussions with Tesla about a manufacturing partnership, Forbes reported.
“Medtronic recognizes the acute need for ventilators as life saving devices in the management of COVID-19 infections,” Executive Vice President Bob White said in a statement to Forbes. “By openly sharing the PB 560 design information, we hope to increase global production of ventilator solutions for the fight against COVID-19.”
Last week, Musk donated over 1,200 ventilators to the state of California to help hospitals dealing with shortages amid the pandemic, KRON4 reported. Musk bought the ventilators from China and shipped them by air to Los Angeles, according to KRON4.
States with ventilator shortages have “pleaded with the Trump administration and manufacturers to speed up production of ventilators to cope with a surge in patients,” Reuters said.
Ford Motor Motor Co has partnered with General Electric Healthcare to help produce a “simplified” design of its ventilator, McClatchy News reported.
Afterwards, the two companies say they plan to make 30,000 ventilators a month as needed to help hospitals give care to patients with the coronavirus, Reuters reported.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Tesla offers free ventilators to hospitals in desperate need from coronavirus, Musk says."