At least one New York hospital has begun putting two patients on a single ventilator machine, an experimental crisis-mode protocol some doctors worry is too risky but others deem necessary, as the coronavirus outbreak strains medical resources.

COVID-19 killed at least 281 people over a few weeks in New York City, in the US, which is struggling with one of the largest case loads in the world, at nearly 22,000 confirmed cases.

Dr Craig Smith, surgeon-in-chief at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Centre in Manhattan, wrote in a newsletter to staff that anaesthetics and intensive care teams had worked “day and night” to get the split-ventilation experiment going.

By Wednesday, he wrote, there were “two patients being carefully managed on one ventilator”.