Hospitals could be left without enough medical ventilators at the height of the UK coronavirus outbreak, with manufacturers struggling to build thousands of new machines in time for the likely mid-April peak in cases. The NHS already has 8,175 ventilators but the government believes up to 30,000 could be needed and has enlisted manufacturers in a wartime-style effort to boost stocks to to at least 61,000. Officials are working on deals to increase that number and are expected to announce new orders for hundreds more machines in the coming days. But the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Friday he could not dispute modelling suggesting that the peak for Covid-19 deaths could arrive on 12 April, Easter Sunday. And sources involved in projects to import or build ventilators told the Guardian that ventilator production was highly unlikely to be in full swing before the end of the month, despite unprecedented collaboration within British industry. The EU ventilator bidding round closed on 26 March and contracts are expected to be signed soon, with delivery dates yet to be finalised. The EU has separate procurement processes underway for masks, goggles and other protective kit for medical workers. A European commission spokesman said the next step was signing the contracts. “The delivery times and the quantities of the ventilators will be negotiated by the member states and the suppliers. “However, taking into account the difficult situation of the markets and the complexity of products, like for instance ventilators, their production and delivery is expected to take time.”