The innovation was the product of the partnership between experts at Makerere University and a local automobile company, Kiira Motors Corporation.

Christened as ‘Bulamu Ventilator’, the components of the gadgets were sourced locally, local media Daily Monitor reports and one is expected to sell at $3,000 (Shs11m).

Muhumuza told The Daily Monitor that the ventilators had passed engineering tests that experts at Makerere University’s medical school were also carrying out endurance and compliance tests of the products.

A ventilator is a piece of medical equipment that aids in artificial respiration when a patient’s lung fails to do it naturally as in the case of people affected with the coronavirus.

The operating system is said to be designed by a young scientist who owns a startup firm called Billy Applied Electronics and ICT Centre in Kampala while engineers at KMC and Makerere University did the mechanical engineering and electronic designs and architectural styling.