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 "There was a shortage," the 47-year-old, who did not wish to be
named in order to protect the staff who struggled to treat her, told
Reuters. "It was discussed all around. It felt like that was the
main issue – oxygen, oxygen, oxygen," she said, convalescing in a
private hospital to which she moved.
Authorities are battling a second wave of infections that has caused
nationwide oxygen shortages. Hospitals in the capital, Abuja, have
come close to running out, while demand in Lagos, the centre of the
outbreak, has increased as much as sevenfold since early autumn.
"There was a national scarcity of oxygen. We were pulling from all
our normal suppliers, and finding new suppliers," Lagos State Health
Commissioner Akin Abayomi told Reuters in an interview.
Demand for cylinders in Lagos went from around 70 per day early last
year to as high as 500 daily from November, Abayomi said.
Nigeria, population 200 million, was spared the worst in its first
COVID-19 wave that began in February last year. But a second wave
has hit hard. More than half of Nigeria's 131,242 confirmed cases
have been logged in the past three months. Fatalities now total
1,586.
In December, the government enlisted Nigeria's Air Force to increase
liquid oxygen production at a plant in the northeastern city of Yola
and fly 117 cylinders to two COVID-19 centres in Abuja.
Authorities pledged in January to build a new oxygen plant in each
of Nigeria's 36 states.
FEES
A Clinton Health Access Initiative study in 2018 found widespread
oxygen supply shortages across Nigeria well before the pandemic hit.
It said that due to high demand, hospital patients were often asked
to pay fees for oxygen that "vary by facility and ... can be quite
exorbitant".
Nigeria has at least 30 oxygen plants but there are frequent
production disruptions due to poor maintenance, aging equipment and
the notoriously unreliable power supply, the global health
organisation said.
[to top of second column] |
 Abayomi said patients are not
charged for oxygen, and none who need it have
been denied. But patients sometimes only need
oxygen for a few hours, and it is taken away
afterwards. "Oxygen is scarce at
this point in time, so we are not wasting it," Abayomi said.
The businesswoman said scarcity prompted wealthy patients on her
ward to pay for oxygen from private suppliers.
"Either you get it from outside or you find a way of accessing it
internally. These were the conversations that were going on," she
said. Declan Eugene, an oxygen dealer whose company
Feligene Global Enterprises supplies hospitals in Abuja, said oxygen
became "very scarce" in November when demand soared.
Eugene said he received anxious calls from customers, some who had
not called in seven years.
"It was a really terrible situation," Eugene said. "And it has
become a norm somehow."
Tanks that he sold for 7,000 to 8,000 naira ($18 to $21) spiked to
20,000 naira ($52), he said.
Eugene said oxygen supply had improved this year because more plants
were working at full capacity. Lagos state last month launched a new
oxygen plant that can fill 60 cylinders a day, and plans to build
two more.
"You can't be in a position where you need oxygen and cannot give
it," Abayomi said. "That's just irresponsible and cruel."
(Reporting by Libby George and Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos;
Additional reporting by Abraham Achirga in Abuja; Editing by Giles
Elgood)
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