Elon Musk donating hundreds of ventilators to New York

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 breathe – were being sent there Thursday night. 

“Working on that with Medtronic.” he said. “Given NY pressing needs, we're delivering Resmed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators to NY hospitals starting tonight.”

De Blasio tweeted about the donation Friday morning “I spoke with @elonmusk late last night. He's donating hundreds of ventilators to New York City and State, including our public hospitals. We're deeply grateful. We need every ventilator we can get our hands on these next few weeks to save lives” de Blasio wrote.

“You're most welcome,” 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.” 

Mush 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 Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday that 519 people have died from the coronavirus in the state, up from the previous day's total of 385 deaths, and more than 44,000 people have been infected. Ventilators are the state's most pressing need.

“Why ventilators?” Cuomo said Friday. “Because this is a respiratory illness. People need ventilators who come in for acute care. And the people are on ventilators much longer then most patients are on ventilators. Most people are on a ventilator for two, three, four days. These COVID patients can come and need a ventilator for up to 20 days. You see why that need for ventilators is so important. And again all of this is to make sure we're ready for that apex when the entire system is stressed and under pressure.” 

President Trump, however, said Thursday that he didn't believe the state needed the 30,000 ventilators Cuomo has requested.