Coronavirus Crisis: Tesla's Elon Musk announces Silicon Valley company will donate FDA-approved ventilators to hospitals

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- Tesla's chief executive and co-founder Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday his Palo Alto-based company is focused on delivering desperately-needed ventilators to hospitals and medical centers, free of charge.

Musk said the ventilators are able to sent to anywhere that Tesla would deliver one of its electric cars. He only asked that the ventilators be used at hospitals that have an urgent influx of COVID-19 patients, so to not be kept unused in a storage warehouse.

While it's unclear exactly how many ventilators Musk offered up, he earlier tweeted that he would be sending shipments to New York hospitals.

Tesla recently decided to close its factory in Fremont as a precaution against the COVID-19 outbreak.

RELATED: Coronavirus Impact: Tesla puts Fremont auto assembly line in park amid COVID-19 pandemic

Since then, Governor Newsom has challenged Silicon Valley companies to switch their productions to assist local hospitals. Sunnyvale-based Bloom Energy is at the forefront of making it happen.

On Monday, Newsom said California is almost halfway to reaching its goal of acquiring 10,000 ventilators.

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