NO SHORTAGE OF OXYGEN – Minister Anthony

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF OXYGEN TO TREAT COVID-19 PATIENTS IN
GUYANA assures Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony.
Anthony said during Tuesday’s daily ‘COVID-19 Update’ the health ministry is working closely
with the local supplier of oxygen to prevent any shortage although there are spikes in cases,
leading to hospitalisations and deaths.
September is so far the deadliest month in Guyana since the first case was detected here in
March 2020. At the end of August this year, Guyana recorded 622 deaths. By Wednesday
September 15, the number climbed to 701 deaths from the highly contagious virus, detected first
in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019.
This means 79 Guyanese died so far for this month: approximately 6 nationals living here
every day. By comparison, only 52 Barbadians have so far died from the pandemic. Trinidad
and Tobago which has almost twice Guyana’s population, has 1,362 deaths. Jamaica, with a
population of 2.9 million has recorded 1,736 deaths.
Neighbouring Suriname with a population of 592,291, has so far lost 773 nationals to the deadly
virus.
Anthony and the government of Guyana have been in a bruising battle trying to convince
skeptical Guyanese to take the covid jab.
They have faced protests from nurses, strikes by teachers and criticisms from sections of the
religious fraternity following controversial measures announced in a Gazetted Order this month,
virtually mandating vaccination or compelling unvaccinated individuals to pay for expensive
PCR tests weekly, to access government services, including collecting old-age pension or getting
critical medical attention.

In the circumstances, daily bread and butter challenges for Guyanese are of more import than
Anthony’s announcement of adequate oxygen for covid-19 patients with respiratory challenges.
“So far, we haven’t had an issue with oxygen because we have been working with the oxygen
company to make sure that we have adequate supplies of oxygen. We’ve had several meetings
between ourselves and the company and we have taken some additional measures of increasing
the capacity, the oxygen capacity at the Ocean View facility,” the minister said during his daily
brief.
“Previously we were utilising a 1000-pound cylinders of oxygen and we’ve had several of them.
We have now put in a bulk tank that was specially designed and brought into the country to cater
for such needs, so that tank right now is replenished every 24 hours. That is providing us right
now with the types of oxygen supply that we need,” minister Anthony explained.
A PAHO/WHO specialist assisted the health ministry to determine its oxygen needs in all the
regional hospitals across the country.
“Based on those recommendations, those that were falling short in terms of how many oxygen
tanks they should have, have been able to start those corrective measures. We have been very
proactive in addressing oxygen (needs) and making sure that we have adequate supplies,” he
pointed out.
There are some 3,090 active cases across the 10 Regions of the country and there have been
increases over the last 24 hours with 135 new cases following numerous tests done
nationwide, the minister admitted.