Covid-19 Ventilators
The Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro published, with vetoes, on Wednesday a new law aimed at protecting indigenous communities against Covid-19.
Among the points were those assuring access to drinking water, free distribution of hygiene products like soap and toothpaste, cleaning and disinfection materials for indigenous communities and mandatory emergency funds for indigenous people’s health.
Bolsonaro also removed articles regarding the emergency provision of additional hospital beds and intensive care units to indigenous people, and the acquisition of ventilators and blood oxygenation machines were also turned down.
In a blog post, the Articulation of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB), stated: "that indigenous leaders and organizations do not bend to government discourse and do not allow a government that is openly anti-indigenous to weaken and disunity the struggle that until now, indigenous peoples, with rare exceptions, have wisely managed to carry on."
With a rising number of Covid-19 cases, India is running out of Intensive Care Units in Mumbai, which is most affected by the pandemic. The city reports the use of 99% of its ICU beds and 9% use of ventilators according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Out of the 1,181 ICU beds, only 14 are open for new patients.
The police arrested Bolivia's Health Minister Marcelo Navajas in La Paz due to the over-priced purchase of coronavirus ventilators.
Bolivia bought 179 ventilators from a manufacturer in Spain for $27,683 each, costing almost $5 million, a purchase funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, later transpired that the manufacturer was offering ventilators for around half that price - $10,312-$11,941.
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stated it would not use the Russian ventilators sent to it by Moscow while an investigation is carried out into their safety.
Faulty “Aventa-M” ventilators are the suspected cause of a fire at the Saint George's Hospital in St Petersburg in which five Covid-19 patients died.
The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure device has been developed together by engineers from Mercedes Formula One and the University College London as well as clinicians from the college. The approval for using it has already given by the respective authority the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the first devices have been delivered to the college and three other hospitals inside London. If the trials are successful Mercedes-AMG-HPP is prepared to produce up to 1,000 devices per day from next week on.
After a series of delays and tweets earlier this Friday, Donald Trump issued an order that seeks to force General Motors to produce ventilators for coronavirus patients under the Defence Production Act.
The Defense Production Act gives the president powers to direct domestic industrial production to provide essential materials and goods needed in a national security crisis. Previously Trump has been reluctant to use the act to force businesses to contribute to the coronavirus fight. "But our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course", the President said. General Motors said it could build 10,000 ventilators per month starting in April.
The billionaire company founder James Dyson has announced that the company managed to design a new ventilator system in 10 days, after receiving an order from the government of the United Kingdom. The company aims to produce 10,000 of the new ventilators for the UK and is planning on donating an additional 5,000 ventilators towards the international fight against the coronavirus by the end of April.
The ExCeL Conference Centre in London's East End is being transformed into a temporary hospital with the capacity for up to 4,000 beds as part of the UK's efforts to fight the Coronavirus outbreak. Named the 'Nightingale Hospital', the halls of the 100,000m² facility — which normally house large exhibitions and trade shows — will initially hold around 500 beds with oxygen and ventilators, with capacity for more spaces and equipment as they become available.
The Governor of California Gavin Newsom has announced that 1,000 ventilators have "arrived in Los Angeles and Elon Musk is already working with the hospital association and others to get those ventilators out in real time". Musk himself said in a tweet that he helped acquire 1,255 ventilators from China and imported them via air-shipment to Los Angeles.