Medtronic sees hit to revenue as hospitals delay elective procedures

(Reuters) – Medtronic Plc said on Tuesday its revenues across the world had plunged in recent weeks, as hospitals put off elective procedures that use its medical devices in order to save capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.

Weekly revenue from the United States declined about 60%, excluding bulk purchases, over the last few weeks, as hospitals focused their efforts on treating surging numbers of patients infected with the novel coronavirus, the world’s largest standalone medical device maker said.

Weekly revenue from China, where the pandemic started, has declined 20% to 40% since March 9, adding to the dent it expects to its overall fourth-quarter sales.

More than 2.5 million people globally have been reported to be infected by the virus and over 170,000 have died.

The company said it was running many of its factories at or near full capacity to have adequate stocks to support an anticipated rebound in procedures and was still on pace to ramp up production of much-needed ventilators by nearly five-fold to more than 1,000 per week by June-end.

Medtronic said it was in a strong position in terms of liquidity, with about $11 billion in cash and investments as of the most recent quarter, and an undrawn $3.5 billion credit facility.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)