Insufficient Oxygen, threatens lives of Covid patients.

By; Ben Musanje

09^th February 2021

Health Experts from Makerere University have revealed that cases of deaths of Covid-19 patients in Uganda are due to oxygen shortage.

This come after reports indicating that the country’s demand for medical oxygen to treat patients with Covid-19 has risen sharply in recent months, raising concerns that thousands of patients may fail to receive life-saving treatment.

Professor of Healthy Policy from the School of Public Health at Makerere University Fred Ssengooba says the challenge is real and will stay until Covid-19 vaccines become available but oxygen will remain the most important life-saving weapon in the medical armoury.

Prof. Ssengooba cites an example of hospitals like Nsambya where10 cylinders of Oxygen used to be accommodated for the entire hospital in a day but currently just a single critical Covid-19 patient takes three cylinders a day which is becoming quite expensive.

Currently Uganda has a total case number of Covid cases of 39,860 with at least 327 deaths so far registered. President Museveni in the National address on February 4, 2021 announced that government was planning to secure 18 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from India that will cater for 9 million people where priority will be given to members of the security forces, teachers, health workers and elderly.