U.S. officials expect to have enough ventilators to care for Covid-19 patients and possible “second waves” of the virus after the government receives about 130,000 of the machines by the end of October.
The Department of Health and Human Services awarded contracts to 10 companies—including General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., and Hamilton Medical Inc.—to make about 200,000 ventilators, but later chose to terminate three and scale back the initial order.
The changes reflect a better understanding of how to treat the respiratory disease and the increased variety in treatments since the beginning of the pandemic. Hospitals initially struggled to ...