As medical professionals around the country battle COVID-19, businesses, including several key Hoosier companies, are pulling together to provide a variety of vital resources.
Gov. Holcomb recently announced that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) has spoken to more than 1,000 businesses about ways to continue supporting the state’s economy and COVID-19 response workers.
The IEDC says more than 135 companies have been fully vetted and identified as being able to help, including RV and auto manufacturers that are switching lines to help make shields, masks and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Multiple companies, such as Subaru, Heritage Group and Summit MMI, have also come together to donate thousands of PPE.
To increase ventilator production, General Motors (GM) is working with Ventec Life Systems to explore the feasibility of building ventilators for Ventec at the GM facility in Kokomo.
Roche Diagnostics, which received the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) first emergency use authorization for a commercially developed COVID-19 test, has also begun deploying tests to hospitals and research laboratories across the country. The company plans to ship 400,000 tests per week to U.S. test sites, including from its global distribution center in Indianapolis.
Additionally, Eli Lilly and Company is partnering with the Indiana State Department of Health, with support from the FDA, to accelerate testing in Indiana for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Lilly will use its specialized research laboratories to analyze samples taken in Indiana health care facilities, including nursing homes and emergency rooms.
Lilly Endowment Inc. has also awarded $5 million to the state of Indiana that will be used to establish a center in Indianapolis where homeless individuals who test positive for COVID-19 can be quarantined.
Parkview Health is also teaming up with local businesses and community organizations to make PPE like face masks and shields for Indiana health care providers throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
Further, Hoosier distilleries like Hotel Tango and Cardinal Spirits are switching over to manufacturing hand sanitizers for organizations and people in need.
There’s no doubt we are in challenging and uncertain times, but we will get through this together. I’m thankful to our business leaders and Hoosiers across the state who are all working together to help fight this outbreak.
If you believe that you or your company have medical supplies on hand that can be used in response to the pandemic; can produce medical supplies that can be used in response; or have any other ways to contribute, please contact covidresponse@iedc.in.gov.
Information on Indiana’s businesses in action against COVID-19 will continue to be updated here.
