Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Ukrainian startup to 3D print parts for ventilators used for COVID-19 patients

March 31, 2020 (KyivPost) Ukrainian startup Revel Laboratory is developing a model to 3D-print valves for ventilators used to support the novel coronavirus patients, who are physically unable to breathe. The company was inspired by their counterparts in Italy, Isinnova startup that produces valves that allow connecting two patients to a ventilator at the same time. Now that COVID-19 started spreading throughout Ukraine, Revel Laboratory is hoping to produce such life-saving machine parts for local hospitals. “We try to help as much as we can,” the company’s co-founders Davyd Stavnitser and Ivan Chebotaev told the Kyiv Post.
Medical workers stand outside of the infection disease department of the Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital on March 16, 2020, in Kyiv. Photo by Oleg Petrasiuk

The governments of countries hit by the coronavirus pandemic see a shortage of ventilators all over the world, while their lasting production struggles to meet the demand. There are about 600 ventilators in Ukraine and the local officials say that the supply is sufficient. However, if Ukraine faces an outbreak nearly as close as the one in Italy, where over 41,000 people got COVID-19 infection and 3,400 of whom died, the country might need more of those machines. Ukraine remains among the European countries with the smallest number of coronavirus cases, however, the infection’s spread has been ramping up lately. The country now has 26 confirmed cases, three of which were fatal, while one patient recovered. Globally, COVID-19 has been registered in over 255,000 people and killed over 10,500.

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