FRIDLEY, Minn. — Medtronic has ramped up production of ventilators in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and 3M has increased their production of N95 masks.
Medtronic officials say they've already increased ventilator manufacturing by 40% increase this year, and have plans to further increase their output.
"In the company's Ireland ventilator manufacturing facility, the company currently has over 250 employees dedicated to ventilator manufacturing and plans to more than double that number, including transferring staff from other Medtronic sites to support ramp up activities," according to a news release.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive officer, tweeted Saturday that he had a good talk with Medtronic about ventilators.
On Sunday, a Medtronic official told KARE 11 that they're working with "Tesla and others to try and solve this global ventilator supply challenge."
3M has doubled their global output of N95 masks to a rate of more than 1.1 billion per year, which is nearly 100 million per month. They are currently at maximum levels of production.
In the United States alone, 3M is producing 35 million respirators a month, and 90 percent are being sent to health care workers. The remaining masks are sent to other industries that are vital to our communities, which include, energy, food and pharmaceutical companies.
"As I write this, more than 500,000 respirators are on the way from our South Dakota plant to two of the more critically impacted areas, New York and Seattle, with arrivals expected starting tomorrow," 3M CEO Mike Roman said in a blog post.
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The state of Minnesota has set up a hotline for general questions about coronavirus at 651-201-3920 or 1-800-657-3903, available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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