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NHS staff are making improvised masks out of snorkels, buying kit from hardware stores and using school science goggles to protect themselves in anticipation of a rise in coronavirus cases, it has emerged.

A consultant anaesthetist working in south-east England reported buying 60 snorkels to adapt into respirator masks. “Various other places are doing the same,” the doctor told the Guardian. “One trust has ordered 500 and teamed up with companies who are (3D) printing the adapters.”

“The snorkel masks have been adapted for use as non-invasive ventilators by Italian anaesthetists. They published their design including 3D-printed adapters to connect oxygen tubing to the snorkel breathing tube,” he said.

“This adapted connection can alternatively be used to attach a heat moisture exchanging (HME) filter used worldwide to protect tubing and ventilators from patients’ exhaled gases. These HMEs are in plentiful supply. You now have PPE combining a full-face visor with filtered air, cleanable, reusable and resource-efficient.”

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