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Updated: Mar 23, 2020 19:27 IST

US President Donald Trump can now order the private sector to ramp up output of equipment for doctors and nurses. The UK government invoked wartime mobilisation to track down ventilators. In South Africa, officials seized a hotel and turned it into a quarantine centre. Companies everywhere, with their businesses suddenly in tatters, are jumping in with acts both of altruism and self-preservation.

The Covid-19 crisis has reminded many in the US of the dark days after September 11. It is swiftly coming to resemble those after Pearl Harbor, when a Japanese attack drove a reluctant nation into World War II.

As President Franklin Roosevelt declared then, “Powerful enemies must be out-fought and out-produced.” Major industries refitted themselves from producers of consumer goods to providers of war material, and almost overnight. auto manufacturers, which had churned out 3 million cars in the previous 12 months, made only 139 for the rest of the war. General Motors turned to airplane engines and Chrysler to fuselages.

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, the World Health Organization has urged all countries to “optimise the availability” of lung ventilation equipment, which assists or replaces breathing functions for critically ill patients, pumping oxygen into the blood to keep organs functioning. “Oxygen therapy is the major treatment intervention for patients with severe Covid-19,” the organisation said.

Now, with thousands dying and hundreds of thousands falling ill from the coronavirus disease, a similar effort is under way around the globe to make up for shortages of surgical masks, ventilators, sanitisers and more—and to give idle workers something to do.

Also Read: As coronavirus cases surge in India, 40,000 ventilators for 1.3bn people a worry

“Our generation has never been tested like this,” UK health secretary Matt Hancock wrote in The Telegraph newspaper. “Our grandparents were, during the Second World War, when our cities were bombed during the Blitz. Despite the pounding every night, the rationing, the loss of life, they pulled together in one gigantic national effort. Today our generation is facing its own test.”

The pandemic is forcing senior doctors in Britain’s National Health Service (BHS) to contemplate the unthinkable: how to ration access to critical care beds and ventilators should resources fall short.

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The NHS is ill-equipped to cope with an outbreak that is unprecedented in modern times. Hospitals are now striving to at least quadruple the number of intensive care beds to meet an expected surge in serious virus cases, senior physicians told Reuters, but expressed dismay that preparations had not begun weeks earlier.

With serious shortages of ventilators, protective equipment and trained workers, the physicians said senior staff at hospitals were beginning to confront an excruciating debate on intensive care rationing though Britain may be a long way from potentially having to make such decisions.

Companies of all shapes and sizes are trying to help—even as many industries beg for government bailouts.

Gaming-hardware maker Razer Inc. said although people stuck at home are eager for its products, it is switching over to surgical masks. “Razer understands that all of us have a part to play in fighting the virus—no matter which industry we come from,” chief executive officer Min-Liang Tan said on Twitter.

Yossi Sheffi, who directs the supply-chain management programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he talked with a company in Hong Kong that had specialised in women’s clothing but now is making protective gear for medical workers, “running 16 hours a day every day. Why are they doing it? Simple: Nobody’s buying women’s clothes right now, and there is a huge need for the gear.”

Ferrari NV and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are in talks with Italy’s biggest ventilator manufacturer to help boost its output. French sugar producer Tereos SCA will start making hydroalcoholic gel, used for sanitisers, at five of its factories. Offers to help have poured in from all industries, from JCB, a construction-equipment manufacturer, to Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc to vacuum-cleaner maker Dyson Ltd.

German carmaker Volkswagen AG said on Friday it was joining other manufacturers around the world to explore using 3D printing to make hospital ventilators to combat the coronavirus.

In a statement, Volkswagen said it had assembled a task force, was testing materials and checking supply chains to see how it can use 3D printing to help manufacture hospital ventilators and other life-saving equipment.

“Medical equipment is a new field for us. But as soon as we understand the requirements, and receive a blueprint, we can get started,” Volkswagen said, adding that prototype components had been printed and its Skoda arm was included in the project.

General Motors in a statement said it was working with Ventec Life Systems to enable the medical device maker to leverage the US automaker’s logistics and expertise to build more ventilators.

“We are working closely with Ventec to rapidly scale up production of their critically important respiratory products to support our country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” GM CEO Mary Barra said.

Volkswagen’s sports car brand Porsche also said on Friday it wanted to help in relief efforts. “We are collecting ideas about what we could do in terms of humanitarian help,” chief executive Oliver Blume said on a call to discuss earnings.

Munich-based carmaker BMW said it too was ready to help. “The production of components using 3D printing technology is a possibility,” it said.

Sweden’s carmaker Volvo urged all governments to take the crisis equally seriously and limit movements.

“I think for the economy, we need to do something drastic, rather then trying half-hearted measures that drag on forever,” chief executive Hakan Samuelsson said. “We are seeing the effect from this coronavirus is increasing every day.”

In Scotland, the brewer BrewDog has begun making hand sanitiser; in Norway, spirits maker Arcus is producing disinfectant liquid for hospitals and emergency services. Luxury conglomerate LVMH, whose perfume and skincare brands include Dior and Givenchy, is working on large quantities of hydroalcoholic gel.

Sheffi of MIT said some of the switches can be done in days; others will take weeks. He called for governments to make more demands on the private sector. “We have amazing capabilities, we just have to marshal it, and we haven’t yet.”

People on the front lines are desperate. Hospital workers in Washington state have been making protective medical gear out of office supplies and other run-of-the-mill materials as they deal with a severe shortage of equipment needed to care for patients who may have Covid-19. AFT Nurses and Health Professionals, a national union, issued a plea for equipment for members under “grave threat.”

Ford Motor Co. is pulling all of its ads promoting its vehicles and replacing them with sombre announcements reminiscent of World War II that describe how the Dearborn, Michigan-based company is responding to the virus, including giving Ford Credit customers some payment relief. The ads note that Ford, with its century-long history, made tanks and planes during wartime and offered relief during natural disasters.

The spots were produced rapidly last week as it became clear that nothing was going to be normal for quite a while, company officials said.

As in wartime, governments around the world are imposing massive closures on schools, travel and gathering places, and barring many workers from going to work.

Some also are pushing limits that worry civil rights activists.

In Israel, for example, the security services are tracking infected people and the people they visit with cell-phone monitoring developed for tracking terrorists. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered prisoners to make alcohol-based hand sanitiser that they themselves are banned from using because of the alcohol content.

And some executives have been more reluctant than others. Elon Musk, who’s been publicly sceptical about the gravity of the coronavirus, tweeted on Friday that SpaceX and Tesla Inc. are helping to make ventilators “even though I think they probably won’t be needed.”