Nigerian Air Force researchers unveil new ventilator

Nigeria’s Air Force Institute of Technology, based in Kaduna, has unveiled locally made ventilators that it hopes will be a game changer in the country’s fight against Covid-19.

"The ventilators will go a long way to help not only coronavirus patients but also others with respiratory illnesses," the leader of the research team, Captain Osichinaka Ubadike, told the BBC.

He said materials for the ventilators were all sourced locally in the northern state of Kaduna.

A ventilator takes over the body's breathing process when disease has caused the lungs to fail, which can happen with Covid-19.

This gives the patient time to fight off the infection and recover.

Nigeria currently has nearly 9,000 cases of coronavirus and some say the figures could be much higher as testing levels are still very low across the country.