Winifred Bosa

At the beginning of COVID -19 third wave , Lagos state  has witnessed a gradual increase in the uptake of oxygen from the utilisation of 75 cylinders per day to over 400 cylinders per day.

The State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who disclosed this recently  during a news conference on the state’s management of COVID-19 said that the target was an oxygen supply capacity of 1,000 cylinders per day in the state.

 To help better manage the pandemic, he said that the state government had invested in strengthening the capacity of the Lagos State BioBank to sequence positive cases.

”Sequencing allows us to identify the predominant strains of the COVID-19 virus in our environment and provides us with information on how to better respond to the pandemic.

”In terms of treatment of the more severe cases, let me say a few things specifically about the use of oxygen, which is a vital requirement for the management of the most severe cases.

”We have indeed seen a gradual increase in the uptake of oxygen during this pandemic, from the utilisation of 75 cylinders per day at the beginning of this third wave, to over 400 cylinders per day, currently.

”With our modelling suggesting that we may be requiring even more oxygen supply over the next few weeks, we are exploring several ways of increasing our oxygen capacity, including partnering with the private sector,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu said that at the moment, the state, regarded as the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, had only two functioning oxygen plants, at the IDH in Yaba and in Gbagada, adding that the government was looking forward to taking delivery of two additional oxygen plants being built in Lagos State by the Federal Government.