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Australian Car Manufacturer Will Switch To Making Ventilators For Coronavirus Patients

Australian Car Manufacturer Will Switch To Making Ventilators For Coronavirus Patients

Ventilators are in short supply amid the pandemic and this could be life-saving.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

An Australian car manufacturer has offered to add ventilator construction to their assembly line to help coronavirus patients.

Some of the people who will be hospitalised for Covid-19 will need to be placed on a ventilator, which breathes for the body and gives their already overworked lungs some rest.

However, there are only so many on hand at the moment.

PA

Walkinshaw Automotive Group, which used to build high performance Holden Commodores, has thrown their hat into the ring to assist during the pandemic.

Ryan Walkinshaw says his company wants to do what it can to ensure people have what they need during the crisis.

"We feel that we can help reduce the impact of a serious health crisis," Mr Walkinshaw told the Courier Mail.

"That ranges from ideas such as building ventilators through a partnership with a current manufacturer, through trying to design, engineer and build our own makeshift ventilators.

PA

"We're also exploring another solution of working with a partner in Australia on designing our own ventilator...if there is a serious shortage of ventilators further down the track I'm sure there would be a large proportion of people who, rather than having no ventilator, would have a more agricultural one."

Ryan said he's in talks with the Victorian government about what will be specifically needed.

"It may be ventilators, it may be face masks, it may be medical gowns, it may be testing equipment, it may be mobile testing stations which we can manufacture with our caravan business," he added.

It follows Dyson's move to add a ventilator to their list of products needing to be built.

Dyson

The vacuum cleaning legend has announced plans to create at least 15,000 devices that are up to hospital specifications.

Sir James Dyson said in a global email to staff: "The race is now on to get it into production.

"I am proud of what Dyson engineers and our partners at TTP have achieved. I am eager to see this new device in production and in hospitals as soon as possible.

"This is clearly a time of grave international crisis, I will therefore donate 5,000 units to the international effort, 1,000 of which will go to the United Kingdom."

Dyson

The UK government has already ordered 10,000 from the Dyson company.

The ventilator is named CoVent, and according to ITV, it's portable and powered by a re-engineered Dyson Digital Motor.

It comes after fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk delivered on his promise to start making ventilators at Tesla factories.

The Tesla chief shipped 1,000 ventilators to Los Angeles hospitals this week.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Coronavirus, Australia