Octavia Spencer donates breathing monitors to hospitals across America amid the coronavirus outbreak

Octavia Spencer has donated breathing monitors to hospitals in Alabama and New York to provide help during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Oscar-winning actress, 47, wrote a heartfelt post on her Instagram page on Tuesday, urging people to ‘give back to our neighbours, family, and those on the frontlines’ amid the crisis. 

The Hidden Figures star said she felt ‘helpless’ in knowing how best to assist as she announced her donation in the hope the breathing monitors will ‘indicate potential onset’ of COVID-19 in those with symptoms. 

Octavia posted a photograph of a Miku ventilator alongside a lengthy caption that read: ‘I, like many of you, have felt helpless in knowing how to help during this time. 

‘Seeing what is happening in the communities that I love, I have teamed up with @Mikucare to donate monitors to nursing and medical facilities in Alabama and New York to provide much needed relief to nurses as they navigate care for COVID-19 patients.

‘Miku’s contactless respiratory monitoring offers the ability to detect nuanced changes in breathing patterns. 

‘With the understanding that respiration is one of the earliest indicators of illness, Miku’s breathing monitoring can indicate potential onset before other symptoms present.

‘Miku’s two-way talk and video functionality also provides patients and medical personnel a method to communicate safely and effectively with those who have contracted the highly contagious virus.

‘Please everyone do your part to stay safe and stay home in order to protect yourself and the ones you love most and I hope we can all find ways – small and large – to give back to our neighbors, family, and those on the frontlines.’  

Earlier this month, Octavia revealed she had found a ‘quarantine buddy’ in her celebrity trainer pal Patrick Goudeau.

She posted a photograph on her Instagram page to offer a glimpse of a jug of sangria the pair had made for their ‘backyard bbq for 2’.

The Hidden Figures star also uploaded an array of selfies to Instagram in which she was using her scarves as makeshift face masks. 

‘How’re y’all holding up, ladies? I had to shave my mustache and unibrow. The quarantine fashion is real!’ she quipped in the caption.

She later posted a snap of roses growing over a white picket fence, possibly one taken during her latest walk.

‘Thinking a lot today about first time parents who are about to give birth but the dad’s can’t accompany the new moms in the delivery room or to the hospital,’ she wrote.

‘And of course the heart break of all of the people who aren’t getting the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. Hopefully, we will never take for granted how precious it is to say hello and goodbye after this.’