Elon Musk donates 50,000 N95 masks to US hospital

San Francisco, March 23 (IANS) In a bid to help battle the novel coronavirus pandemic, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has donated 50,000 N95 surgical masks and various protective items to a hospital in the US.

Musk has made a promise that he would donate 250,000 masks with the N95 protection level, which belong to his companies, to hospitals.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Health Hospital received a truckload of various protective items, including masks and gowns from Tesla, according to tesmanian.com.

According to the report, 50,000 masks designed to protect the health of medical personnel in the hospital were delivered to Dr Kristina Adams Waldorf.

"The doctor's friend's brother works for Tesla, so as soon as he found out that the company was going to donate the necessary protective equipment, he said that Seattle now urgently needed them".

According to the estimates of the hospital management, the protective equipment for the staff of the institution was only left for one week.

Musk has confirmed that Tesla and SpaceX employees are "working on ventilators" even though he does not believe they will be needed.

The confirmation came after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a direct plea to Musk to help alleviate a shortage at hospitals gearing up to combat COVID-19.