Refurbished oxygen plant handed over

OVER eight hundred thousand Kwacha has been spent on refurbishing the oxygen plant and mother’s shelter at the university Teaching Hospital (UTH) Children’s Hospital since it was commissioned.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya thanked the UNICEF and the government of Sweden for the financial support channeled towards renovating both facilities at the hospital.

K702,350 was spent on renovating the oxygen plant while over K100,000 went towards refurbishing the mother’s shelter.

Dr Chilufya said the donation of the refurbished oxygen plant had come at the right time when the Zambia was battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Chilufya explained President Edgar Lungu had been re-engineering the health sector to re-position it for universal health coverage.

Dr Chilufya said with Covid -19 many patients being admitted to health institutions needed oxygen and as such the use of oxygen had gone up.

Meanwhile, UNICEF country representative Ms Noala Skinner said oxygen was a key life ingredient at all health institutions.

Ms Skinner said UNICEF would also extended the support to Lewanika and Mongu general hospitals’ mothers’ shelter.

And UTH senior medical superintendent –Children’s hospitals Professor John Musuku disclosed that the oxygen plant and the mother had been in dormant in last 10 years and commended UNICEF and Sweden government for the support.

Meanwhile, Zambia has recorded 109 new Covid-19 cases, one facility death and 5 unclassified. Fifty- two people were admitted countrywide of whom 19 are on oxygen.