The world faces a shortage of oxygen concentrators as the number of worldwide cases of coronavirus infection nears the 10 million. COVID-19 Tracker ›
“Many countries are now experiencing difficulties obtaining oxygen concentrators,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. “Demand is currently outstripping supply.”
The sudden rise has created a dearth of oxygen concentrators needed to support breathing of COVID-19 patients suffering from respiratory distress.
The health agency has purchased 14,000 oxygen concentrators from manufacturers and plans to send them to 120 countries in coming weeks, Tedros said. A further 170,000 concentrators – valued at some $100 million – will be potentially available over the next six months.
The head of the WHO emergencies programme, Dr Mike Ryan, meanwhile said the pandemic in many Latin American countries was still intense as deaths in the region surpassed 100,000 this week. Many countries had experienced 25-50% increases in cases in the past week, he said.
Source: Reuters