250K N95 Masks Ready For Hospitals Tomorrow and 1K Ventilators Should Be Ready By Next Week, Says Elon Musk

At the moment, the threat of COVID-19 is hanging over people. Thousands of new infections are reported every day around the world. According to statistics, elderly people and those who have chronic diseases fall into the risk zone for complications and probable death from the disease.

Due to increased demand for virus protection products, masks are now in short supply. This deficiency is felt not only by people who want to buy them, but also by medical workers. In fact, this situation creates a big problem, because due to the lack of personal protective equipment, the medical personnel who come in contact with patients directly fall into the high-risk zone.

Today, thousands of health workers are infected and dozens have already died from COVID-19. In this situation, the main efforts should be aimed at providing medical institutions with all necessary protective equipment.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, in an interview with CleanTechnica, said that tomorrow night, 250,000 masks with N95 protection level, which belong to his companies, will be transferred to hospitals.

“We have 250k N95 masks. Aiming to start distributing those to hospitals tomorrow night."

N95 masks have both industrial and medical applications, so it can be assumed that Tesla has a large supply of them in order to cover their needs. Due to the fact that at the moment all Tesla factories in the United States have temporarily suspended their activities, due to quarantine, it can be assumed that they do not need so many masks in the near future, so the company has the opportunity to give them to those who they are really needed now.

In addition to the masks so urgently needed at the moment, Musk said that he would make 1000 ventilators by next week.

"Should have over 1000 ventilators by next week.”

In a global pandemic, hospitals around the world are at risk of congestion. COVID-19 infects the lungs, and fans are therefore needed to help breathe those affected by the virus.

Today Musk had a discussion on this issue with the Medtronic team. It is likely that they will contribute to the creation of ventilators.

Just had a long engineering discussion with Medtronic about state-of-the-art ventilators. Very impressive team!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2020

2 hours after Musk’s tweet, Medtronic confirmed that it had discussions with Tesla CEO with the goal of finding solutions that would help solve problems and provide patients and hospitals with the tools they need to save lives.

Addressing #COVID19 is a group effort. We are grateful for the discussion with @ElonMusk and @Tesla as we work across industries to solve problems and get patients and hospitals the tools they need to continue saving lives. We're all in this together. https://t.co/MdZ3u8k2nR

— Medtronic (@Medtronic) March 21, 2020

Two days ago, Musk tweeted that Tesla and SpaceX could create ventilators, but that would take some time.

"Tesla makes cars with sophisticated hvac systems. SpaceX makes spacecraft with life support systems. Ventilators are not difficult, but cannot be produced instantly."

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an American oncologist and bioethicist who is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress as well as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Police said on MSNBC that he spoke with Musk. According to this conversation, Tesla CEO said it would take 8-10 weeks to get ventilators production started at his factories.

Despite his position on the coronavirus, Musk supports society, trying to help them in this situation. At the moment, the United States does not yet feel the urgent need for ventilators, so there is still time to produce them. But now there is an urgent need for masks, which is why distributing 250,000 units to hospitals is an extremely big contribution and can save the lives and health of thousands of medical workers.

Featured image: Chemistry