One of the world's largest industrial companies is joining the war against Covid-19, with General Electric boosting the manufacturing of ventilators and other medical devices used to treat and diagnose patients inflicted with the coronavirus.
The Chicago, Illinois-headquartered firm disclosed it is hiring new workers to operate new production lines to mass-produce ventilators -- used to assist in breathing problems that some people develop while suffering from the disease--and boosting production for diagnostic devices.
The company will increase the volume of work shifts as it rushes to make monitors, CTs, ultrasound machines, and mobile X-ray equipment round-the-clock to meet the increase in demand caused by the pandemic.
The industrial giant's public disclosure comes as the federal government scrambles to purchase more medical equipment to cope with a surge in critically ill patients with coronavirus, with rising fears that ventilator capacity may be reduced as the crisis worsens.
"As the pandemic progresses, demand for medical devices, including ventilators, is unparalleled," GE Healthcare chief executive officer Kieran Murphy said.
The rapid spread of the disease, which has killed more than 8,900 people, has strained health-care systems around the world and resulted in a shortage of medical devices required to treat critically ill patients with the flu-like virus, which in extreme cases can lead to breathing difficulties and pneumonia.
Running in the thousands of dollars per unit, ventilators are high-tech "iron lungs" models that helped people stay alive during violent polio epidemics in the 1950s.
Hospitals in the U.S. are bracing for a surge of patients as the epidemic worsens, and a new government report found that most hospitalizations were among people aged 65 to 84.
The company's technicians and engineers were also provided with personal protection equipment while handling medical devices used by various hospitals and medical facilities, with the company also ramping up remote diagnostics and repair capabilities. The company's stocks dropped 2.12 percent to $6.46 per share in early morning sessions on Thursday.
Numerous efforts to ramp up production capacity have been carried out by other companies including Medtronic. General Motors and Ford have said they are in discussions with White House officials about how they can promote medical equipment development.
On Wednesday Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk agreed to make ventilators in the event of a US shortage. Apart from that, companies like Apple manufacturing division Foxconn has retrofitted manufacturing lines to produce masks and related products.
