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Toyota City, Japan, April 30, 2020―Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announced that today it provided Showa University Hospital a specially designed transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. The Toyota Hiace-based vehicle was developed and outfitted by Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. based on a variety of requests from medical facilities. This is the first time for Toyota to provide a transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
The specially designed, Hiace-based transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients was developed as an “airborne droplet circulation control vehicle.” It features an interior barrier that creates a forward compartment, which houses the driver’s seat and front-passenger seat, and a rearward compartment, which houses the rear passenger seat area. An exhaust fan continuously expels air from the rearward compartment out of the vehicle, helping to prevent the air in the rearward compartment from circulating to the forward compartment.
With a desire to provide vehicles that can at least play a small role in combatting COVID-19, Toyota, while listening to the needs of those on the frontlines of the medical sector, has been considering the best ways it can help. The transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients provided today joins 11 transport vehicles for mildly infected patients already provided by the Toyota Group to such entities as medical facilities and local governments.
Vehicles provided so far by the Toyota Group
| Date of provision | Use | Vehicle | No. of units | Receiver | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 10, 2020 (start) | For mildly ill patients | JPN Taxi | 7 | 6 hospitals*1 in Tokyo: advanced treatment hospitals, university hospitals, etc. | Toyota Motor Corporation |
| April 22, 2020 | 1 | Chiba Prefecture*2 | |||
| April 24, 2020 | Sienta | 1 | Miyagi Prefecture | Toyota Motor East Japan, Inc. | |
| April 27, 2020 | JPN Taxi | 2 | Edogawa Ward, Tokyo | Toyota Mobility Tokyo, Inc. | |
| April 30, 2020 | For seriously ill patients | Hiace | 1 | Showa University Hospital | Toyota Motor Corporation |
The Toyota Group has positioned this initiative for supporting the around-the-clock efforts of the frontlines of the medical sector, which are working hard to diagnose and treat patients for COVID-19, as part of Toyota’s Kokoro Hakobu Project*3. Going forward, in response to requests from such entities as medical facilities and local governments for the provision of transport vehicles for COVID-19 patients, Toyota intends to continue considering measures that will be helpful and to continue taking quick action.
