Published 17:04 IST, March 28th 2020
Trump announces 100k ventilators in 100 days to help countries battle COVID-19
Amid coronavirus pandemic, the United States President Donald Trump on March 27 said that US will be making more than 100,000 ventilators in the next 100 days.
- World News
- 3 min read
Amid coronavirus pandemic, the United States President Donald Trump on March 27 said that US will be making more than 100,000 ventilators in the next 100 days to help its friends and allies in the fight against the deadly virus. According to reports, the White House has been working with ten different companies to manufacture ventilators. Having ramped up the production of ventilators and other medical equipment, Trump said that his administration will be distributing ventilators throughout the world to other countries.
Trump’s decision of helping his allies come after the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Trump’s help. While addressing the daily coronavirus briefing, Trump said, “Boris Johnson was asking for ventilators today. Unfortunately, he tested positive. And that's a terrible thing, but he's going to be great. I'm sure he's going to be totally great. But they want ventilators. Italy wants ventilators, Spain wants ventilators, Germany wants ventilators”.
Trump further added, “They're all calling for ventilators. Well, we're going to make a lot of ventilators and we'll take care of our needs, but we're also going to help other countries. We are in a position to do things that other countries can't, so we have sort of an interesting position. We can make them because we are going to be making over 100,000 pretty quickly so we can make them and if we donate them, that's okay because we can help Italy and UK, especially Boris Johnson. I mean when I say how are you feeling and the first thing Boris said to me is we need ventilators”.
‘Very large acceleration in infections’
According to international media reports, US federal government currently has approximately 10,000 ventilators and more than 100,000 people have been infected with coronavirus in the country. The deadly virus has even claimed almost 1,700 lives in the region. With soaring numbers of infected cases, Trump also said that his administration is taking new action to ensure that America has the medical resources and equipment needed to fight the global pandemic.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has said that US has the potential to become the new epicentre due to a ‘very large acceleration in infections’ in the country. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said, “United Nations health agency is now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the US. So it does have that potential. We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential”. She added that the US has a “very large outbreak and an outbreak that is increasing in intensity”.
(With PTI inputs)
Updated 17:04 IST, March 28th 2020