Indonesian engineers have designed a new type of ventilator - made out of plastic cups.
The prototype was developed over two months of intensive efforts, and will cost just $1,000 per machine, as opposed to regular ventilators that sell for around $20,000. Indonesia currently has just 8,413 ventilators in its 2,867 hospitals, which are unlikely to be enough given that the country has a population of 260 million and estimates are that the number of Covid-19 cases could rise to as many as 1.6 million.
So far, only 895 people are confirmed to have died of the virus, but the mortality rate has been relatively high at around 7%.
Despite the excitement in some circles at the new invention, the size of a small oven, experts have expressed their doubts that it will prove of value in the crisis, calling it a "cheap solution that may not have a substantial impact," as one doctor working in Sheba Medical Center in Israel said. Eyal Leshem added that, "Simply having thousands of mechanical ventilation machines will only mean that we'll be able to connect the patients that are in respiratory failure and then watch them deteriorate within a few days."