As hospitals brace for the possibility that a crush of coronavirus patients could descend on American hospitals, health officials are attempting to get ahead of a sudden demand for ventilators -- breathing machines that have proven essential in saving lives around the world during the spread of the illness."We have a lot of ventilators in reserve," said Dr. J.
What to know about Coronavirus:"We're in the process, and in some cases have already done it, ordered a large number of respirators just in case," Trump said."We hope we don't need them but we've ordered a large number." Officials at another manufacturer, Drägerwerk AG & Co., told ABC News they just received an order for 10,000 ventilators from the German government. “The delivery of the order will stretch across the entire year and requires a substantial increase of the production capacity,” a spokesperson said.
On Friday, the Society of Critical Care Medicine released a new report highlighting the scarcity of available medical resources in the U.S., including ventilators. The report cited the latest available data, including from a 2009 survey of hospitals, indicating that hospitals could use both existing machines and pull older devices from storage, as well as the 8,900 sitting in emergency stockpiles.