• Sky News recently broadcast footage of critical coronavirus patients in Bergamo, Italy, wearing bubble-shaped containers over their heads in a makeshift intensive-care unit.
• The containers are mobile ventilators.
• COVID-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — can cause respiratory infections, so the balloon-like ventilators can help people get enough oxygen while preventing the spread of infection.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Harrowing footage taken in a makeshift intensive-care unit in northern Italy shows critical coronavirus patients with plastic, bubble-shaped containers over their heads.

The video was broadcast Thursday by Sky News inside a hospital in Bergamo, the worst-hit city in Italy, and showed the degree to which Italy’s healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the outbreak. Italy has confirmed nearly 60,000 cases as of Sunday, and 5,400 deaths. Italy has a population of about 60 million.

For comparison, China, where the virus originated, has had more than 81,000 confirmed cases and 3,265 deaths, but its population is around 1.4 billion.

Some people may find the video below, of Italy’s makeshift ICU, distressing to watch.

The bubble-shaped containers over the patients’ heads in the video are mobile ventilators.

Ventilators in general mechanically pump breathable …continued .
[Source: Business Insider]