Somalia opens first public oxygen plant to help treat COVID-19 amid severe shortage

The new plant in Mogadishu was bought for 282,000 euros ($240,700) from Turkey by the Hormuud Salaam Foundation [Photo: Reuters]

MOGADISHU – Somalia’s first public oxygen plant opened on Thursday, in a ray of hope for a rustic the place a lifesaving therapy for the coronavirus has been largely unavailable to sufferers in the course of the pandemic.

Global demand for medical oxygen has surged with the COVID-19 pandemic, and lots of international locations have skilled determined shortages.

This and a scarcity of different gear imply Africans severely ailing from COVID-19 are extra seemingly to die than sufferers elsewhere, in accordance to a research printed in May by the medical journal The Lancet, which cited knowledge from 64 hospitals in 10 international locations.

The new plant in Mogadishu was bought for 282,000 euros ($240,700) from Turkey by the Hormuud Salaam Foundation, established by the nation’s largest telecoms firm, Hormuud.

It will likely be put in on the Banadir Maternity and Children Hospital, the place the muse has additionally funded the restoration of its COVID-19 ward.

The wing and the hospital’s outer wall have been partially destroyed throughout a close-by assault in July by Islamist al-Shabaab militants, who’re preventing overthrowing the federal government.

Medical oxygen manufacturing wants specialists to function and preserve gear. It additionally requires dependable electrical energy and water provides, which most Somali public hospitals don’t have.

Other international locations, resembling India, suffered severe oxygen shortages throughout surges in COVID-19 infections, forcing determined households of sufferers to pay exorbitant costs for cylinders.

“One cylinder of oxygen usually costs around $50 in Somalia but can reach up to $400 or $500 (at private hospitals) because of the shortage,” mentioned Abdullahi Nur Osman, CEO of Hormuud’s basis.

He mentioned the oxygen will likely be distributed among the many public hospitals within the capital Mogadishu freed from cost.

As of Wednesday, Somalia had reported almost 20,000 COVID-19 circumstances and 1,100 deaths, in accordance to the World Health Organization, however, figures could possibly be far increased due to insufficient testing and unreported deaths.

Only 1% of Somalia’s 15 million residents are totally vaccinated, reflecting inequities in vaccine distribution that the World Health Organization warns will lengthen the pandemic, which has already claimed almost 5 million lives.