CONACYT to produce 700 ventilators for the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico

María Elena Álvarez-Buylla

, head of the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) announced that by May 15 , CONACYT will finish assembling 700 ventilators that will be installed in hospitals with COVID-19 patients.

“We expect to have 700 ventilators by the first weeks of May, which is the time when the epidemiological peak is expected. There have been collaborations with different industries in an emerging program of innovation , manufacture , and assembly in order to build an environment of emerging innovation promoted by CONACYT to face this challenge,” she said.

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Álvarez-Buylla mentioned that the objective set by President López Obrador was to produce 100% Mexican medical equipment with quality and biomedical safety to face the coronavirus health emergency .

“These ventilators will have to be invasive, of 100% Mexican technology, less expensive than those available abroad, and with high quality and biomedical safety,” she added.

She said that 200 units will be built from a first model and 500 from another; one of them is called Gätsi , which means “sigh” in Otomí.

She explained that the first technological development is 100% made by CONACYT and is based on an open model created by MIT . “In this case, the electronic cards will be obtained from a collaboration with companies that are participating out of pure solidarity.”

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Therefore, there will be 200 units of this model called AMBU BAG , the tests of which began to run on Friday in order to get the ventilators certification by the Federal Commission for the Protection Against Health Risks (COFEPRIS) .

The Gätsi model is 100% Mexican and is developed by Dydetec . It is already certified by Cofepris. Moreover, several tests have already been run.

“Their manufacture will conclude on May 15 and we are preparing the logistics with a command center to install them in hospitals and train doctors as soon as possible; the idea is for them to be assembled on May 15 and installed in hospitals a few days later,” she said.

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