All nations are short of ventilators but Northern Ireland is particularly short, which is very concerning

It has, for example, often been said recently that the NHS in Northern Ireland is seriously unprepared for this medical crisis.

The health service in the Province certainly is going to struggle to cope if the spread of coronavirus gets anywhere near as bad as the worst predictions.

Therefore it is important to note that the best healthcare systems in the world, in countries such as France and Germany and Italy and Japan and the United States, are not going to be able to cope either. None of these nations foresaw a situation such as this one.

It is also important to note that the disgraceful way in which the UK government allowed one party to collapse Stormont and keep it down until its red lines were met, left schools and hospitals rudderless for three years.

This led to an even longer delay than MLAs had already caused, through their cross party inaction, to the essential overhaul of the health service in Northern Ireland that experts have called for with ever greater urgency for 20 years.

But aside from this context, it is a blunt reality that the NHS across the UK, and in Northern Ireland perhaps even more so, is particularly badly placed compared to other first world countries, including the numbers of critical care beds.

The situation that the News Letter reports today with ventilators is very concerning.

Even after new ventilators arrive by the end of this month, we have far fewer than the Republic of Ireland, which itself has far fewer than the United States, and even America needs many times more than it will probably need in coming weeks.

The UK is ordering many more, as is every country, which we trust will come to NI in pro rata numbers. Also, 650 ventilator-type devices have also been ordered for NI.

In the meantime, this is yet another illustration of the urgent need for rigid social distancing in Northern Ireland.