Elon Musk, Medtronic discuss ventilators amid coronavirus outbreak

[BENGALURU] As the United States is combating a shortage of ventilators and respirators amid the coronavirus outbreak, Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk said he has had a discussion about ventilators with medical device maker Medtronic.

"Just had a long engineering discussion with Medtronic about state-of-the-art ventilators," Mr Musk tweeted on Saturday.

Medtronic confirmed having a discussion with Mr Musk but neither elaborated further on the topic of the discussion or whether they will lead to any material steps.

Mr Musk earlier this week offered to make ventilators for coronavirus sufferers, after the US appealed for donations of respirator masks to fight a shortage.

Governments across the world, including in the US, are drafting automakers and aerospace manufacturers to ramp up production of ventilators and other medical equipment.

REUTERS