Elon Musk has promised to provide New York with hundreds of ventilators to help meet demand from the growing coronavirus outbreak. The Tesla chief executive said the first batch of donated machines would be delivered later on Friday.

The ventilators were purchased from US government-approved manufacturers in China. The mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio thanked Mr Musk on Twitter writing “We’re deeply grateful.” “We need every ventilator we can get our hands on these next few weeks to save lives,” he tweeted.

The ventilators will be donated to hospitals in New York City and across New York state. New York has the highest number of cases of Covid-19 in the US. As of Friday the governor said 519 people in the state had died from the disease. On Thursday, the US officially became the country with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 globally.(BBC)…[+]