Amid concerns that the healthcare infrastructure globally does not have enough ventilators to meet with the demand in the coming days, governments across the world have urged automakers and tech companies to use their expertise and resources in manufacturing ventilators and other medical equipment. Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer at Tesla, stated the plans to reopen the New York factory "as soon as humanly possible" on Wednesday (via Reuters).
Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible. We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2020
Omar Ishrak, CEO of Medtronic, told CNBC earlier on Wednesday that the medical device company, in collaboration with Tesla, has begun work to ramp up the production of ventilators at Fremont, as the number of COVID-19 cases grows across the U.S. Musk stated on Tuesday that Tesla had bought hospital ventilators in China and shipped them to the U.S.
Last Friday, General Motors and Ventec Life Systems announced that they were partnering to increase the ventilator production in the country.