Federal Government has said it is working towards getting more oxygen to attend to emergencies as coronavirus death cases increase.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and PTF Chairman, Boss Mustapha, stated this in Abuja on Monday during the briefing of the task force.
He said the number of hospitalised people is on the increase and the major concern of the government is to have enough oxygen nationwide to attend to emergencies.
The SGF stressed;
An enhanced risk communication strategy becomes inevitable when we realise that within the last 24 hours, the world witnessed the largest single day cases of 230,370 while in Nigeria, last week recorded the highest weekly fatality of 70 deaths.
He added that there are plans to establish one sample collection centre in each of the 774 local government areas in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
Tanks of oxygen are used to treat people with breathing problems, a common problem faced by some COVID-19 patients. When the case is severe, a ventilator is deployed.
Ventilator is a machine that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently.
Ventilators, sometimes called respirators, are chiefly used in intensive care and emergency medicine.
In April 2020, Nigeria, according to Daily Trust, had only 169 ventilators in sixteen out of the 36 states of the federation. However, the numbers have significantly increased as both the federal and state governments have imported many of the machines.
