In Syria rebel stronghold, building makeshift ventilators to fight virus

A volunteer wearing gloves builds a prototype ventilator to help combat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the rebel-held Idlib city, Syria April 21, 2020. Picture taken April 21, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

IDLIB, Syria (Reuters) - A team of volunteers in Syria have cobbled together prototypes of a ventilator and a testing machine - homemade equipment to fight the new coronavirus if it hits the last rebel stronghold, where hospitals lie in ruins after nine years of war.

The group of 12, mainly technicians and engineers, hope to build hundreds of makeshift machines to combat the pandemic in Syria's northwest, where an army advance made nearly 1 million people homeless this year.