A foundation in Italy has started producing 3D-printed medical face masks and providing them free to hospitals hit hardest by COVID-19 across the country.

The Give Me a Hand foundation prints the masks in the Bergamo region of Italy, one of the epicenters of the pandemic.

It has sent them to several hospitals, many in the regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Sicily – where the influx of patients with COVID-19 has been especially bad.

Italy has been one of the worst-affected countries by the virus, with more than 15,000 dead and 125,000 confirmed cases to date.

William Amighetti, President of Give Me a Hand, said: "Our mask is made with a flexible body, which gets fully adapted to the face. Inside it's made of hypoallergenic materials, which have been medically tested, and then there's a double filter."

The foundation is hoping to open the mask design to the rest of the world, with plans to make it available online.

Italian authorities have so far refused to endorse the product because it is not yet certified – a procedure that would cost a lot of money and time. But its producers are not fazed by this.

"We receive a clear message from the health professionals: 'We're not interested in labels, we're interested in preserving our lives,'" Amighetti noted.

Abele Caffi, a voluntary surgeon, thinks it is wrong to ask the foundation to pay for the certification: "Every day that we lose, we lose a lot of things. We lose human lives. And the problem is also that you have to pay 7,000 to 12,000 euros [$7,560 to $12,960] to get this label. For those producing these masks, it means that they're not only doing it for free, but that they should also pay to get them certified."

The hope is, that production lines like this one across Europe will equip hospitals as well as possible in the fight against COVID-19.