Biomedical Engineer Juan Jesús Mejia Fernandez, right, from the National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition, pulls a ventilator called VSZ-20-2, designed at the institute's Biomedical Engineering department, with the help from an institute employee in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 17, 2020. The rugged device that operates with bottled oxygen is meant to overcome an international shortage of the machines and at a lower price. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
August 26, 2020 - 6:07 PM
MEXICO CITY - Mexico is not only making its own ventilators now to treat COVID-19 patients, it announced Wednesday that it will donate the machines to other countries.
The foreign relations department said the Mexican ventilators would go to nations around the Caribbean.
They include Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Santa Lucía, Suriname, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. Another 51 machines are also now being donated to 14 states in Mexico.
The ventilators finished tests and were announced ready for use earlier this month. Mexico began developing the model in April, when it was buying ventilators abroad, mainly from China and the United States.
Mexico continues to have a high case load, but says hospitals currently have a safe margin of ventilator availability for domestic patients.
The Health Department reported 5,267 new confirmed coronavirus cases Wednesday, bringing the total to 573,888, and 626 new confirmed deaths, for a total of 62,076.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020