As of this morning – Thursday May 7 – the current recorded case count for COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the UK has hit 201,101 with 30,076 deaths.

Volunteers at Imperial College London are making more than 50,000 disposable visors for healthcare workers at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust hospitals.

An entire floor of Imperial’s Translation & Innovation Hub (I-HUB) in White City has been converted to assemble the visors, which will support Trust staff on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis.

More than 6,000 visors have already been delivered to Charing Cross Hospital. Tens of thousands more will be distributed across Trust hospitals over the coming weeks, ICL said.

The project is led by Imperial College Advanced Hackspace and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance at Imperial, in partnership with the Trust and their Infection Control team.

The Trust has also received support from Rolls Royce Motor Cars, which provided kits for the team of Imperial volunteers to assemble the first 7,000 visors.

The project is also supported by Imperial’s donor-backed COVID-19 Response Fund, which provided £5,000 of seed funding to establish its production line of visors and to enable development of the initial prototypes.

“This is a remarkable effort which shows the power of institutions coming together at a time of great need,” said Professor Nick Jennings, vice-provost (Research and Enterprise).

“It shows great speed of action and the willingness of volunteers to rally to a common cause.”

WASH YOUR HANDS:

Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water.

MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING:

Maintain at least two metres (six feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.

STAY AT HOME:
Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home).