UK says 300 ventilators arrived from China today for fight against coronavirus

Michael Gove said Germany and Switzerland were also helping the UK's response to Covid-19.

Michael Gove has confirmed that hundreds of new ventilators have arrived in the country to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said hundreds of new ventilators were being manufactured in the UK every day and more had been sourced from abroad – including 300 which arrived from China today.

More ventilators will start being produced soon by a consortium of aerospace, engineering and Formula One teams, Mr Gove added.

He continued: ‘We’ve been buying invasive ventilators from partners abroad, including Germany and Switzerland, and today 300 new ventilators arrived from China, I’d like to thank the Chinese government.’

It follows concerns that the country does not have enough ventilators or specialist equipment to deal with the outbreak as effectively as possible.

NHS England national medical director Stephen Powis declined to provide a number on the country’s ventilation capacity.

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But, he said: ‘We are constantly looking to procure ventilators and the call to arms for British industry is also aiding in getting ventilators from sources that we didn’t have before.

‘The overall strategy is to keep our ventilation capacity and our critical care facilities ahead of the demand.

‘We have successfully done that so far and if we all comply with the measures that have been put in place then that gives us the very best chance that the demand never exceeds the capacity.’

Mr Gove said the Government is also working with UK ventilator suppliers to manufacture existing and modified models in greater numbers.

He said new models have been designed to come on stream soon, explaining: ‘The new models that have been scaled up as part of the Ventilator Challenge (a brief put to a consortium of manufacturers) will becoming on production lines this week.

‘More are coming into production in the coming weeks, subject to safety and regulatory approvals, as part of the Prime Minister’s call to manufacturers to scale up production.’

The new Nightingale Hospital at London’s ExCel centre can treat 500 patients on ventilators, Mr Gove said, adding that more field hospitals are being built in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Harrogate and Manchester.

Mr Gove said the NHS and the military are ‘accelerating their existing work’ to turn Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre into a field hospital due to the rise in infections in the region.

The government is planning to use both invasive and non-invasive ventilators.

Mr Gove added that the government was doing all it can to ease the crisis, including looking into whether the use of pre-existing medicines could work in the battle against coronavirus.

Yesterday, Airbus donated 400,000 face masks to the NHS.

Today, the UK saw another surge in deaths, as 708 people infected with the virus were confirmed to have died – taking the death toll beyond 4,000.

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