PHOTO: AFP

French factory adapts its ventilator for the fight against coronavirus

The factory’s 35 workers are producing a version of this machine that allows coronavirus patients to be ventilated


Afp April 06, 2020
It’s all hands on deck in a factory in eastern France that typically makes a non-invasive ventilator used to treat sleep apnea.

The factory’s 35 workers are now producing a version of this machine that allows coronavirus patients to be ventilated outside of intensive care units, reducing the burden on hospitals.

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“We are overloaded with work and we are on our feet,” one worker told FRANCE 24.

“But we’re in good health, so it’s quite right that we put in the hours.”

The factory’s first order was marked for Grenoble, France, with successive ones bound for Spain, Poland, and Colombia.

The automotive industry is also offering its expertise and manpower to the hospital sector as it gears up to build mechanical ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, an initiative that is being met with some skepticism.

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American auto manufacturers General Motors and Ford, French car companies PSA and Renault, and Formula 1 engineers have joined the ranks in response to a massive global shortage of the vital piece of medical equipment.

As hospitals around the world face a surge of patients with breathing difficulties from COVID-19, the scarcity of ventilators has forced doctors to make life-or-death decisions.

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