Medical staff on the front line of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic have found themselves left short of essential protective equipment, such as face masks. Now an enterprising network of 3D-printer owners have resolved to do their bit to help protect heroic medical staff in their vital work of caring for COVID-19 patients. The 3DCrowd UK group was set up by palliative-medicine doctor James Coxon and is currently looking to recruit more members.

The organisation has already made thousands of 3D-printed masks, which they have donated to GPs, pharmacies, paramedics and social-care homes.

Gen Ashley from 3DCrowd told the BBC: “We are basically asking all the people around the country with 3D printers to join our project to create face shields for hospitals and other health workers.

“We also need volunteers to help distribute the masks and donations from companies and the public to pay for materials and distribution costs.”

New members have to first register on the 3DCrowd UK website, whereupon they are sent instructions on how to produce headbands for the masks.

These are then sent on to a centre where they are assembled.

The group is seeking to raise £40,000 in funds through a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign.

They have so far successfully raised half that sum.

Orders for the masks are made via the website and to date 365 orders have been placed for 110,000 masks by health workers.

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The masks have received approval from the Czech Republic, but are still waiting for the green light from the UK government, according to Ms Ashley.

Meanwhile, an economics expert has suggested that Britain could see as many as 10,000 coronavirus deaths by next week, putting the UK on a far worse trajectory than Italy, if growth rates in fatalities continue to increase at their current pace.

Ed Conway, economics editor for Sky News, argues that to predict where the COVID-19 pandemic is heading in the UK, it is important to focus not on the current number of people dying, but rather on the growth rate.

And the growth rate in COVID-19 deaths in Britain has been high from the very start.

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Mr Conway wrote: “The UK growth rate has been high from the very beginning.

“Within a week or so of the first death, the number of deaths was doubling every two days.

“For the past week or so it’s been doubling every three days.

“To put that into context, if the growth rate continued like that, in a week’s time there would be 10,000 people dead and the UK would be on a far worse trajectory than Italy.

“That is the dismal logic of exponential growth.

“It looks small to start with but, by the time you’ve got your head round it, the numbers are multiplying at a terrible rate.”

He estimated that the UK was following Italy’s pathway and was lagging behind by about 15 days.

On Tuesday, the government announced the steepest single day rise in deaths from COVID-19.

Up to 381 new fatalities were recorded for March 30, bringing the national death toll to 1,789, while the total number of infections stood at 25,150 according to data provided by wordometers.info.

By comparison Italy has 105,792 cases of coronavirus, with 12,428 deaths.

Mr Conway’s remarks come after one of the leading scientists advising the government’s coronavirus response claimed that there infection rates could be slowing.