South Sudan has begun producing oxygen following the successful installation of the country’s first oxygen plant at Juba Teaching Hospital, set up with funding from the African Development Fund.
The $980 000 oxygen plant project cost includes the procurement and construction of a facility to house the plant.
South Sudan’s Health Minister, Elizabeth Achuei, said the installation of the plant was good news to the nation and would bolster the country’s preparedness for oxygen in anticipation of the third wave of Covid-19.
“The installation of the oxygen plant will be a great boost to provide intensive care treatment to the critically ill Covid-19 patients” said Dr Fabian Ndenzako, the WHO Representative for South Sudan.
The plant would strengthen the country’s health system and improve emergency preparedness, particularly in the country’s Covid-19 response.
African Development Bank Country Manager for South Sudan, Benedict Kanu, said providing the oxygen plant formed part of efforts by the African Development Bank Group and its partners to build a robust and well-functioning health system in South Sudan to respond to health emergencies.
“The Covid-19 pandemic remains a major threat to South Sudan’s population and elsewhere in Africa. The Bank will continue to work with the government of South Sudan and its development partners like the WHO to ensure a timely response to the pandemic and future public health emergencies to save lives and livelihoods,” Kanu said.
“Timely facility-based isolation for mild COVID-19 cases reduces the number of new infections.”
The isolation facilities were handed over at a similar event on 1 September 2021, in the presence of the Minister of Health, the African Development Bank Country Manager, WHO Representative and other delegates and the media among others.
It also trained some 400 health workers to care for Covid-19 patients at national and sub-national levels across the country.
