Coronavirus News: Ford Delivers Support To COVID-19 Fronliners In Medical Equipment

KEY POINTS

GE Healthcare and the Ford Company came together in a partnership to produce healthcare equipment
These equipment are mainly face shields and ventilators and respirators
They said the partnership aims to produce these quickly to deliver them to healthcare workers and hospitals

The Ford Motor Company recently forwarded 8,000 face shields to the Denver and Aurora health systems. The masks are set to arrive within the week. The recipients have been revealed to be the Medical Center of Aurora, Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center and the Spalding Rehab Hospital.

According to Fox News, the face shields are important in the fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). These help block the face and the eyes from liquid contact. As COVID-19 can be spread through droplets, having these face shields while treating patients may help in reducing contagion among health care workers.

Ford has announced that it would assemble more than 100,000 face shields in the weeks to come. In addition, Ford has a partnership with GE Healthcare and 3M to manufacture ventilators and respirators. They are planning to ship out the products to the facilities that need it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Ford’s production will begin soon in Michigan, USA, BizCommunity reported. The facility will produce around 50,000 units within 100 days, hopefully. They also aim to produce 30,000 within a month on an as-needed basis. Ford plans to re-purpose its manufacturing capabilities to produce the ventilators, while GE Healthcare will provide the information and source the design from Airon Corp, a private company that produces high-tech pneumatic life support equipment.

Jim Hackett, president and CEO at Ford, said that both teams have worked around the clock to produce the ventilator quickly and in quantity. He added that through the production of the ventilator, the work of healthcare workers will be easier and they will also be able to save more lives than before.

Bill Ford, the Ford Company’s executive chairman, said that the situation in America concerning the coronavirus outbreak called for “action and cooperation.” The reason behind Ford and GE teaming up across multiple industries is to make a real difference, once which would benefit people in great need of such a partnership, such as those who are working on the frontlines to solve the pandemic.