President George Weah has commissioned Liberia’s first medical oxygen plant in western Monrovia. The plant was designed to attend to critical cases needing life support in a country where healthcare delivery remains challenging.
The plant, with a capacity to produce 100 cylinders of medical oxygen per day, was been set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The project was funded with partners including the governments of Canada, Germany,and the US.
Weah joined dignitaries at an old peacekeeping force headquarters known as “Star Base” in western Monrovia on Tuesday to launch the plant.
Weah declared his administration’s readiness to tackle Liberia’s crippling health challenges.
Health Minister Wilhelmina Jallah said local hospitals should now know Liberia had an oxygen plant they could order from.
The new plant will serve an estimated population of about two million inhabitants in the capital, Monrovia, and surrounding regions. A team from South Africa has trained twenty local biomedical technicians and operators on how to deploy it.
Another plant will be installed in the western Liberian region of Bomi, toward the border with Sierra Leone.
Liberia lost the highest number of the more than 11,000 people who died in the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreaks due to factors including lack of oxygen.