Ford to make ventilators at parts plant
Ford is repurposing an auto parts factory west of Detroit to start building simple ventilators to treat coronavirus patients.
The automaker says that starting the week of April 20, it expects to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days. The plant in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, would have the ability to build 30,000 per month after that.
Ford also is working with GE Healthcare to quickly double production of a more sophisticated ventilator at a factory in Madison, Wisconsin.
The ventilators to be built in Michigan are a designed by Airon Corp. Ford says they work on air pressure, not electricity, and can handle the needs of most COVID-19 patients.
• GUESTS ARE GONE: Hotels are bracing for a colossal drop in revenue this year. STR and Tourism Economics — two data firms — forecast revenue declines of 51% per available hotel room.
Revenue per available room is a key industry statistic; it grew for 10 years straight before reaching a record of $86.76 in 2019.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association estimates that by Tuesday half of all U.S. hotels will have closed, affecting 1.6 million jobs.
Marriott International — the world’s biggest hotel chain — has furloughed about two-thirds of its 4,000 corporate employees. Hilton plans furloughs or reduced hours for much of its corporate staff starting next week.
Airbnb, which has also seen a sharp drop-off in business, pledged Monday to offer more financial help to the hosts of its 7 million listings. Airbnb will pay hosts 25% of what they would have earned if a guest cancels a reservation between March 14 and May 31. It estimated the program will cost $250 million. Hosts were angered earlier this month when Airbnb announced guests could cancel their stays without any penalty. Airbnb also said it is creating a $10 million fund for some of its best hosts and experience providers to help them pay rent or mortgages.
• THE VIRUS : Johnson & Johnson expects to begin human clinical studies of its “lead vaccine candidate” no later than September. The company said the first batches of a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for emergency use in early 2021.
Shares of Abbott Laboratories jumped more than 6% Monday in the first day of trading since announcing that the Food and Drug Administration had approved its test for the detection of the novel coronavirus. Abbott’s portable ID NOW platform can produce positive test results in as little as five minutes, and negative results in 13 minutes. The tests are expected to be available next week and the company says it will ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 per day.
• EXTRA: Facebook is investing an additional $100 million in local journalism to support reporting on the pandemic. Emergency grant funding of $25 million will go to local news through the Facebook Journalism Project and another $75 million will be devoted to media marketing.