This comes as the World Health Organization says the pandemic is accelerating across the globe. Hospitals everywhere are facing a shortage of equipment, including ventilators. This life saving equipment helps patients to breathe in the most critical cases, when their lung function fails. The uk currently has around 8,000 ventilators in the country, but needs many more. So, how do we urgently get access to more of these machines . Can we manufacture more of them in this country . Jen copestake has been looking at some of the possible solutions. The uk government has put a call out to big businesses to help manufacture new ventilators. Already, dyson have answered, saying they are hoping to start production on 10,000 machines by mid april. But will this be enough, soon enough . Teams of engineers and doctors are also trying to come up with more Immediate Solutions to this problem, which could be cheaper and more portable. We spoke to some of them this week. Most are committed to making
their designs open source and freely available, once they have been tested. These machines need to work 2a hours a day for up to m days at a time per patient. 50 set to respirate 15. A team from the university of oxford and Kings College london have quickly designed what they think is a workable ventilator which could go into production right away, called 0xvent. It was presented to the uk cabinet this week and was made to special covid 19 regulations that the government published. And is driven into this box. Inside the box is a standard ambulance bag. These bags are normally compressed by hand to provide air to a patient, but in this case, we compress it using the pressure from our air supply. The device is made from a0 components, 90 of which are off the shelf, meaning
they are already in the nhs supply chain and theoretically easy to procure. 0xvent will now be tested in birmingham, and may cost less than £1,000 per machine, compared to tens of thousands of pounds for ones in use in hospitals now. We want something thats simple and that can be built. And sure, i can make a ventilator as fancy as you like, but ill get it to you in october, if thats all right. Thats not an option. In france, a collective have created what they call the minimal universal respirator. Theyre confident it could enter the mass Production Phase in the coming days. Theyve already shown it to a paris hospital. Its made of 3d printed components and hasnt yet been medically certified, but they say there is a need to innovate quickly in a crisis. When you need to do a tracheotomy, when you dont have the kit to do it, you use that a pen. 0k . And we are doing something that is almost similar to that. Its, ok, its not a full feature
respirator, but it may help save people, so we must try it. This attitude to try and iterate quickly is echoed in spain, which has faced a rising death toll. This ventilator is also made from 3d printable parts. A group working out of the Leitat Technology Centre only started the design a week ago. Theyve already brought it to a hospital to try out. It is going through the final stages of medical testing and, if successful, will be ready to manufacture. It costs less than 500 euros to make and can be made in 2a hours. The group say they have been approached by manufacturers ready to produce between 50 and 100 a day, once they receive approval. In lithuania, people are working on a simple 3d printable respiratory device that doesnt
need electricity. The idea was inspired by designs from japan that have been tested on the International Space station. If the prototype succeeds, they want to make it freely available to those most in need. When we think about third world countries, where, like, there is, like, extremely huge populations, and theyre not that developed in the medical field, people will die due to a lack of equipment. We also saw a sophisticated solution which could be made quickly. In canada, thornhill medical, whose Battery Powered ventilators are used by the us military, have been asked by the government there to ramp up production. Their portable intensive care device is Battery Powered and generates its own oxygen from the air. Theyre already ce marked and fda approved, and the designer believes they have the expertise to make them quickly in adapted automotive or aerospace factories around the world. If everybody puts the pedal to the metal and goes full speed, i think this could be ramped up in very large numbers pretty quickly. Its certainly inspiring to see how engineers around the world are coming together to work on this problem in the face of many challenges. But getting out cheaper, Faster Solutions could be critical for people everywhere where ventilators are scarce. That wasjen, and lets hope that technology really can be used as a force for good in this crisis, and those machines get to the people who need them. Now, with about a third of the global population currently under some kind of lockdown, we are increasingly turning to tech to stay connected, and chris fox has been looking at some ways to recreate that social feeling at a distance. Like millions of us across the world, ive spent the last week self isolating and staying at home. Luckily, ive been social distancing for about 20 years, so ive learned a thing or two about staying social without leaving the house. Hey hi, zoe. Hows it going . Video calls are suddenly all the rage, and this week,
instagram added a new feature called co watching, that lets you show off your favourite photos during an Instagram Video call. Oh, look for a video chat with a difference, check out house party. Its been lingering at the top of the app charts all week. Instead of calling your friends, you notify them when youre free for a chat, and up to eight friends can drop in to the same party. Its owned by fortnite maker epic games, so of course you can play games here, too. If you miss playing board games with your friends, board game arena lets you choose from a range of modern games, and some classics like chess and backgammon, to play either against your friends or against internet strangers, if you prefer. Most of the games are free to play, although the website is so busy at the moment, it says its giving priority access to premium subscribers at peak times. Heres a tip if you prefer to play your own board games. Some of the video calling apps, including zoom and skype, will let you start a call on your phone, but invite your computer as a guest participant using just one account. So you can video chat over here and use your phone as a camera to stream the game board. Now, this is the only game ive got in the flat to demonstrate with. Its a secret admirer board game where players have to work out who fancies them and call them on this phone. Is it matt . Hi, sorry its not me laughs. Oh, its not matt its not matt. Oh, no bad luck, spencer now, being in isolation doesnt necessarily have to put your dating life on hold. Im trying a new app called filter off. It was originally as a way designed to beat catfishers, fake profiles, because instead ofjust swiping yes and no on people to try to find matches with people you think are hot, instead youre matched with a set number of people to do speed date video calls on an evening. So what you do is you tell the app when youre free well, im not doing anything else tonight and then you are matched with people. And my first chat will be with zach, founder of the app, and i dont even get to see his picture, just a few facts as sort of conversation starters. And its counting down now. Your date begins in a few seconds. This is actually very tense hey, chris hey, zach hows it going . Good, man. How are you . Looking good ive actually brought you to one of my favourite dining spots. Its my kitchen. Thank you for that. So why did you want to create filter off . Yeah, so i created filter off to give people an easy way to see if they vibe with one another, and i think the best way of doing
that is through video. Couldnt this potentially be more brutal . That youve actually spoken to someone, and then they dont match with you . I mean, thats the risk, right . But you could also show up on a date and then you never get texted. You cant use the excuse that youre busy, because i know youre in isolation if your online date goes well and you get as far as netflix and chill, then check out netflix party. Its a web browser plug in that synchronises programmes with your friends, so youre all watching the same part at the same time. Its free, and it even adds a chat window, so you can share messages without missing the action. We often think of Virtual Reality as a solitary experience, but there are a growing number of Multiplayer Games to try online, like this zombie shooter, arizona sunshine. The strangest thing for me is how you really do feel like your friend is in the room with you. Its a totally different experience from a video call. Hey and if fighting off zombie hordes is a bit too close to the bone right now, try rec room, which is Cross Platform and free. The game lets you hang out with friends, play games together,
and even interact with strangers in a way that somehow gives you a feeling of being connected to the world. Perhaps when we come out of isolation, in a few weeks time, well have made some new friends along the way. That is it for the shortcut of click for this week. You can watch the full length version right now on iplayer, if you happen to have a bit of spare time. Next week, unbelievably, in the middle of all of whats going on, it is clicks 20th birthday. I know, its weird, isnt it . And so, were going to bring you something that hopefully will take your mind off things for a little bit its a blast back to the past and a look at our greatest hits since the year 2000. I wish you well. Be safe and we will see you next week. During the early part of last week, we had some spring warmth. 0n tuesday, all the way up to 19 between start the new week on a much colder note. Sunday, temperatures in most spots not out of Single Digits and a rather chilly start to monday morning. High pressure in charge to the west of the british isles, a strong area of High Pressure with circulating wins clockwise drawing rather cold air our way. Some slightly lighter blue colours spreading in. The air perhaps not as cold as it was over the weekend. Through the day, showers around, wintry at first in the north, showers down the east of england but through the day, any wintry nurse
and those showers confined to the highest ground, mostly rain, not as many showers further west, relatively breezy but not as windy, not feeling as cold, between nine and 11, large amounts of cloud but also some spells of sunshine. Monday night, afairamount also some spells of sunshine. Monday night, a fair amount of cloud, some clear breaks showers feeding in from the north but those temperatures not as low as they have been in recent nights. Many spots will probably hold just above freezing because of a change in where the air is coming from. Our area of High Pressure shifting southwards allowing wind in from the atlantic so wind no longer straight down from the arctic, instead this west or north westerly low so the air less cold, cloud around on tuesday, sunny spells, the odd shower, temperatures nine, ten 01 odd shower, temperatures nine, ten or 11 degrees. Wednesday, similar across northern ireland. A lot of
cloud, sunny spells and it looks like we will see showery rain starting to push in from the north across scotland. Temperatures are touch higher than they have been better bit below par. Changes to the end of the week. Dives its way in from the north, anotherfrontal system, snow in fact across scotland. A shot of cold air across the northern half of the uk but sides of something milder returning from the south so after a chilly start to the week, rain snow at times. But it turns milderfrom start to the week, rain snow at times. But it turns milder from the south later. Hello this is bbc news im Martine Croxall with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. 1,228 people have now died from coronavirus in the uk a rise of 209. Hello this is bbc news im Martine Croxall with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. 1,228 people have now died from coronavirus in the uk a rise of 209. Deserted roads and empty parks a top official says we will have a three week review, we will see where we are going. We will need to keep the lid on and then we will be able to gradually adjust some of the social distancing measures. In the us a prediction from the leading government expert that coronavirus could kill up to 200,000 americans