Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric car maker’s Gigafactory facility in New York will soon be reopening to begin producing ventilators.
“Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday. “We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York.”
The tweet comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked for Musk’s help sourcing ventilators last week, which came after the Tesla CEO had tweeted that the company would make ventilators if there were a shortage.
New York has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with 285 deaths and more than 30,000 infections. That’s more reported coronavirus cases than any other state in the country.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order on March 20 requiring all non-essential businesses to close in an effort to curb the spread. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator, also said that anyone who has been in New York recently should self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent the virus from spreading.
Tesla is one of several tech companies providing medical supplies to the US amidst shortages. Apple is donating 10 million N95 protective face masks to the medical community in the US, as CEO Tim Cook announced on Wednesday. Facebook will also be donating the 720,000 masks it had purchased during the California wildfires and plans to source millions more.
Several tech fi.rms, including Microsoft, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook, are also contributing resources toward a hackathon being held to encourage developers to create tech solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic.
