Fearing India-like Covid collapse, Kenya scrambles for oxygen

Critical care nurse fits a ventilator mask during a simulation to demonstrate delivery of medical oxygen to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) following the installation of a modern Oxygen plant at the Metropolitan Hospital in Kenya's capital Nairobi

At the peak of Kenya's third wave of Covid-19 in March, hospitals -- buckling under the strain of the virus -- saw their oxygen reserves fizzle out. Since then, they have been scrambling to increase capacity of the lifesaving element, fearing the nightmare scenario currently unfolding in India due to oxygen shortages. On the roof of the Metropolitan Hospital, a 150-bed private institution that targets the middle class, a brand-new oxygen production unit has just been installed that is capable of producing up to 600 litres of the gas per minute. Metropolitan CEO Kanyenje Gakombe said the hospital accelerated plans to produce its own oxygen after supplies were squeezed to the limit during the height of the third wave, fanned by the variants of the coronavirus first detected in Britain and South Africa.