NHS doctors have been forced to significantly tighten their intensive care admission criteria since the beginning of the outbreak. A senior consultant recently revealed the shortage of resources has lead to further restrictions on who qualifies for intensive care.

Speaking to the Telegraph, a senior NHS consultant said overstretched resources being used for a long time must mean doctors must be “reasonably certain” the patient will recover.

They said: “As we learn more about the disease, we are being much more careful about which patients are being considered for critical care.

“In normal times we will give most people the benefit of the doubt. That has changed.

“With this infection you need a couple of weeks on a ventilator, so with resources being used for such a long time, you have to be reasonably certain the person is going to get better.

“Delaying their death for two or three weeks is not the right thing for them or for society.”

A department head at Imperial College Healthcare revealed that fewer and fewer marginal patients are being selected for ventilator treatment because so many serious cases require up to two weeks on the machines.

However, they deny people are being denied care due to capacity problems.

They said: “very poorly patients with coronavirus may need to be on a ventilator for extended periods.

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“For some patients this would not be in their best interests.”

Meanwhile, palliative care doctors have advised that family members should ask elderly loved-ones if they want hospital treatment in the event they deteriorate with coronavirus.

Rachel Clarke, a specialist in Oxford, warned that Covid-19 patients were spending their final hours and days alone in busy intensive care units, despite having no hope of survival.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jenny Harries recently warned the number of deaths are set to increase once again.

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At the time of writing there are 19,522 confirmed cases in the UK.

There have been 1,228 deaths.

Globally, there has been 33,939 deaths, with the toll going up each day.

The news comes as factories have been receiving calls directly from local hospitals asking them to “make them anything” to protect NHS staff due to a shortage of protective equipment.

Factories are receiving calls directly from local hospitals saying “can you make us anything, we are desperate for any protective equipment, anything that you can provide”, according to Make it British.

Make it British founder Kate Hills said: “Everyone in the whole world is looking for the PPE [personal protective equipment].

“We need to look at local suppliers and mobilise supply here.”

Two weeks ago, the Cabinet Office distributed a survey to manufacturers asking what protective equipment they would be able to make.

Factories reportedly received no response from the government to order any supplies following the survey.

Meanwhile, staff in hospitals have complained they lack basic protective gear such as face masks or medical scrubs.

There have even been reports of some staff buying their own protective equipment.

However, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said 42.8 million gloves, 142,000 gowns and 2.3 million pairs of eye protectors have been delivered to 58,000 “health care settings”, including hospitals and GP surgeries.