Uganda navigates oxygen shortage crisis amid pandemic third wave

As Uganda undergoes its third wave of the COVID 19 pandemic, the demand for refilling oxygen cylinders has drastically increased. 

Oxygen provider Roofings Group previously refilled around 40 to 50 cylinders of oxygen per day -- depending on demand, but now refills almost 400 cylinders daily.

The stark difference in demains is attributed to hospitals treating coronavirus patients being in need of the life-saving gas during the health crisis.

Stuart Mwesigwa, the business development manager at Roofings Group outlines the current state of affairs. 

"At the moment I’d say we are able to supply according to the demand because on average of 300 to 400 cylinders per day. All that is coming in we are able to refill them at least in a maximum of eight to twelve hours. 

"However, if it escalates I am sure we could hit our maximum capacity in that maybe we won’t be able to do so much. Before COVID, we could produce maybe like for 40 to 50 cylinders depending on the demand."

Uganda sees 79,434 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 989 deaths -- as reported by the World Health Organization, and records 52,382 recoveries.

As of June 28, a total of 937,417 vaccine doses have been administered in the East African nation.