DRC/Oxygen production: the first plant inaugurated in Kinshasa
The construction of the oxygen production plant was made possible with the support of the World Bank, through the Emergency Project in Support of Response and Preparedness to Covid-19 of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The first oxygen production plant is located at the General Reference Hospital of Kinshasa (ex-Mama Yemo).The work was monitored and supervised by the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention, through the Health System Development Program Management Unit. The implementation of this plant will improve the supply and access to oxygen therapy and save lives.
The plant was inaugurated by Minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani who cut the symbolic ribbon. In his speech, he recalled the context that led to the provision of eight plants across the country for the production of oxygen.Since March 2020, he said, the DRC has recorded more than eighty-seven thousand confirmed cases with one thousand three hundred and thirty-eight deaths in all twenty-six provinces. The treatment and care centers for covid-19 cases have treated and cured nearly sixty thousand people.
Over the past two years, public health measures, including surveillance, improved screening, treatment and promotion of barrier measures have been essential to control the spread of the virus."However, it should be noted that a good proportion of those who died could be saved if the supply and access to oxygen therapy were optimal. It is in this context that the government of the DRC, through its strategic plan of preparation and response against covid-19, in line with the orientations of the Head of State and the directives of the World Health Organization, had envisaged the followingWorld Health Organization, had planned to increase the country's capacity in the supply and access to oxygen therapy," said the minister.
Jean-Jacques Mbungani thanked the World Bank for its contribution that allowed the DRC to equip itself with eight plants."With the support of the World Bank, the country has just equipped itself with the first eight medical oxygen production plants, including the one at the General Reference Hospital in Kinshasa, which we are inaugurating today. This is therefore an opportunity for us to thank the World Bank for its support to the Government of Rwanda's Emergency Project in Support of Response and Preparedness against Covid-19, implemented by the Ministry of Health.s Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention, through the Management Unit of the Health System Development Program.the government to have eight medical oxygen production plants located in five provinces, namely two in North Kivu and one in South Kivu. namely two in North Kivu, one in South Kivu, one in Upper Katanga, one in Central Kongo and three in the city of Kinshasa," he said. The Minister said that these oxygen production plants will strengthen the Universal Health Coverage, before inviting the managers of the beneficiary structures to make good use of them.
"These important works contribute to the Universal Health Coverage chosen as a battle horse of the President of the Republic, Head of State, His Excellency Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, who spares no effort to improve the health status of the population of the Democratic Republic of Congo.I therefore invite the managers of the beneficiary structures to ensure the proper use of these facilities to serve the patients through effective and efficient management," he said.
It should be noted that these plants have the capacity to produce about fifty-three fifty-liter oxygen cylinders per day with a pressure of two hundred bars which will serve not only to cover the needs of the beneficiary hospitals, in this case the Panzi Hospital, Kyeshero Medical Center, Kyeshero Hospital, and the Kinshasa Hospital.Hospital, Sendwe Hospital, Kinkanda Provincial Hospital, Ngaliema Clinic, Kinkole General Hospital and theKinkole General Hospital and the Kinshasa General Referral Hospital, as well as other surrounding facilities.
Source: www.adiac-congo.com
