Italy recently became the unwanted COVID-19 epicentre, with hundreds of deaths each day and horror stories emerging of older patients being denied intubation in favour of younger patients.

But it has been suggested that at least 10 patients were saved, thanks to 3D printing.

The technology is usually sold as a cheap way of producing custom prosthetics or splints, with machines creating plastic objects to order, based on computer-specified designs.

But last month, a hospital in northern Italy, where the corona­virus outbreak was at its most severe, ran out of valves for oxygen masks.