LONDON (UK) – An order for 10,000 ventilators has been placed by Britain to be manufactured by a consortium of companies including Ford, Airbus and Rolls-Royce in efforts to fight coronavirus.
Governments all around the globe are trying to boost ventilator numbers available to their health services. Ventilators are mechanical breathing devices which blow air and oxygen into the lungs.
Ventilators are crucial for people suffering from lung failure, a complication suffered by patients with severe COVID-19. However, ventilators do not necessarily save people.
Britain’s National Health Service has approximately 8,000 ventilators at its disposal, according to senior government minister Michael Gove.
The government is making agreements with the private sector and overseas suppliers as well as domestic production to boost capacity.
“We’ve done a deal with (vacuum cleaner company) Dyson, which means that – provided all the appropriate tests are passed – we can have an additional 10,000 ventilators. There are other companies, from McLaren to Rolls-Royce and others, who are changing the way in which they manufacture in order to join in the national effort to increase the ventilator capacity available.”
– Micheal Gove
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.