Ensure steady oxygen supply, Govt told

GOVERNMENT should step up efforts of ensuring a steady supply of oxygen in health institutions managing the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the Continental Leadership Research Institute (CLRI) has said.

CLRI Executive Director, Paul Mundia Hakoola, said the availability of oxygen was a critical in the treatment COVID-19 hence the need to ensure that the commodity was readily available all the time.

Mr Hakoola said in Livingstone that his organization has noted with concern the shortage of oxygen in health facilities around the country during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to ensure that there was uninterrupted supply of oxygen in health facilities.

"The institute has noted that there is a shortage of oxygen in many health facilities across the country and there is need to ensure that oxygen is available in health centres so as to save as many lives as possible," he said.

Mr Hakoola proposed measures to ensure a steady and uninterrupted supply of the commodity in hospitals.

"For health facilities or hospitals that have been built with the capacity to self-supply of oxygen such as UTH and Levy Hospitals, the Institute has noted that these institutions are operating 50 per cent of the capacity. The government should build institutional capacity for these institutions to run at 100 per cent.

"More recently the Government removed taxes on cooking oil and petroleum products; we recommend that Government should remove taxes on all commodities that are needed in the production oxygen so as to make oxygen more accessible to citizens in both public and private health facilities.