Category: new york
Private tech companies mobilize to address shortages for medical supplies, masks and sanitizer
Startups across the nation and around the world are looking for ways to relieve shortages of much-needed personal protective equipment and sanitizers used to halt the spread of COVID-19. While some of the largest privately held technology companies, like SpaceX and Tesla, have shifted to manufacturing ventilators, smaller companies are…
Read More
Tesla email reveals two employees have tested positive for COVID-19
Two Tesla employees, who had been working at home for nearly two weeks, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to an internal email sent Thursday morning by the company’s head of environmental, health, and safety department and viewed by TechCrunch . The employees were not symptomatic in the office, and…
Read More
Tesla CEO Elon Musk: New York gigafactory will reopen for ventilator production
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the company’s factory in Buffalo, New York will open “as soon as humanly possible” to produce ventilators that are in short supply due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. His comments, which were made Wednesday via Twitter, follows previous statements by the…
Read More
FDA now allows treatment of life-threatening COVID-19 cases using blood from patients who have recovered
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated its rules around use of experimental treatments for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to include use of ‘convalescent plasma,’ in cases where the patient’s life is seriously or immediately threatened. This isn’t an approval of the procedure as a certified treatment, but…
Read More
With the real estate industry facing headwinds, SoftBank-backed Compass lays off 15% of staff
Compass, the real estate brokerage startup backed by roughly $1.6 billion in venture funding, has laid off 15% of its staff as a result of the shifting economic fortunes created by the global response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal email seen by TechCrunch. Citing economic fallout…
Read More
Justice Dept. files its first coronavirus takedown: a bogus vaccine website
U.S. federal prosecutors have filed and won a temporary restraining order against a website offering a fraudulent coronavirus vaccine, which the Justice Department said is its first enforcement action related to the pandemic. In a statement, the Justice Dept. said the action was taken against a website, said to be…
Read More