Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he’s donating much-needed ventilators to New York as the state battles the most cases of coronavirus in the United States. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed gratitude to Musk for stepping up.
Musk offered to help with ventilators earlier this month during the coronavirus pandemic. While replying to a follower about the progress, Musk said the vital devices – Which help patients with COVID-19 breath – were being sent there Thursday night.
“Working on that with Medtronic,” he said. “Given NY pressing needs, we’re delivering Resumed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators to NY hospitals starting tonight.”
The ventilators were purchased from US government approved manufacturers in China.
The mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio thanked Mr. Musk on twitter writing “we’re deeply grateful.” “We need every ventilator we can get our hands on these next few weeks to save lives,” he tweeted.
“you’re most welcome,” Elon Musk replied. “Credit to the Tesla team. Will do our best to help in any way.” He added that there are “many ventilators in warehouses, but stuck in issues of logistics, routing, and paperwork.”
Musk said he bought 1,255 FDA approved ResMed, Philips and Medtronic ventilators from China last week. He also said he will reopen the company’s factory in Buffalo to start ventilator production.
New York has the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the US. As of Friday, the governor said 519 people in the state had died from the disease.
On Thursday, the US officially became the Country with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally.
Ventilators are needed because the virus attacks the lungs. The patients with serves symptoms often need ventilators to breathe. New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state needed 30,000 ventilators to prepare for the apex of the outbreak.
President Trump, however, said Thursday that he didn’t believe that the state needed the 300,000 ventilators Cuomo has requested.
