A breathing aid that helps to keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care has been created in under a week.

University College London engineers worked with clinicians at UCLH and Mercedes Formula one to created these devices that delivers oxygen to the lungs without needing a ventilator.

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices were used in China to help people suffering with COVID-19 and they are currently being used in Italy. Reports from Lombardy in Italy suggest about 50% of patients who have used CPAP’s have avoided the need for invasive mechanical ventilation.

CPAP’s are used in the UK but they are in short supply.

Forty of the devices have been delivered to UCLH and three other London hospitals.

If the trial goes well then Mercedes will be able to produce over 1,000 of CPAP’s per day, starting next week.

This is possible due to the exiting device being reversed engineered so it can be mass produced quickly and at a huge scale.