General Motors said on Friday it had started providing the first batch of 54 ventilators to U.S. hospitals which are treating severely ill COVID-19 coronavirus patients.
The automaker said the Franciscan Health Olympia Fields hospital located in Olympia Fields, Illinois, and Chicago’s Weiss Memorial Hospitals will get shipments of 10 ventilators each through package delivery company UPS Inc on Friday.
A third shipment comprising 34 ventilators is set to get delivered by UPS to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency at the Gary/Chicago International Airport on Saturday to be distributed at other places.
The deliveries are part of a contract worth $489.4 million was awarded to the automaker by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for 30,000 ventilators by the end of August.
General Motors is working with ventilator firm Ventec Life Systems to produce ventilators.
About 689,588 people in the US have been confirmed as being infected with the coronavirus. The virus has killed 36,097 people in the country.
