Commercial Banks To Supply Oxygen Amid Shortage

As COVID-19 cases continue to remain high, with 3,028 cases and 53 deaths reported on Tuesday, the country is slowly running out of ever-important supplies of oxygen to help keep coronavirus patients alive.

To ensure supply is not limited, the private sector has stepped in, with commercial banks deciding to purchase 1,800 oxygen cylinders to help health facilities tackle a rise in COVID-19 cases, as advised by the Ministry of Health.

“This quantity of oxygen as advised by the Ministry of Health will greatly help in reducing the acute shortage of oxygen in Lusaka Hospitals for at least three months,” the Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) said in a release.

Among those individuals who are in isolation facilities, 757 require oxygen therapies with an additional 154 patients in a critical condition also requiring oxygen.

The Ministry of Health’s involvement in the purchase, or advice of purchase, of these oxygen tanks raises questions as to why they have not supplied the funds to make the purchase themselves. It is suspected that the government’s mismanaged and increasing debt mountain is the likely reason as to why no government purchase of oxygen tanks has been made to help protect the lives of their citizens.

Photo: CGTN