General Motors To Deliver Ventilators To Chicago Hospitals
CHICAGO (CBS)-- General motors is one of several companies switching gears to produce life-saving equipment during the pandemic.
Friday afternoon, General Motors will deliver ventilators, made at its Kokomo, Indiana plant, to hospitals in Chicago. Weiss Hospital is one of the hospitals that will receive the ventilators.
It took three weeks for General Motors to transform the plant's operations in preparation to produce ventilators. General Motors is under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to make 30,000 ventilators.
Ventech, the company that makes critical care ventilators, needed help manufacturing the large number. Gernal Motors chose the Kokomo plant to make the ventilators because of its size and available workforce.
The plant brought back 1,000 laid-off workers and trained them to build the machines.
"It really just shows that when you have teams that are motivated and committed to a cause you can do incredible things and the team in Kokomo is doing some incredible work," Dan Flores, GM spokesperson, said.
A spokesperson said Northwestern Memorial Hospital will also get ventilators.