Egypt's ministry of health announced the increase of the production of liquefied oxygen to confront the second wave of the coronavirus. During a virtual cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Minister of Health Hala Zayed provided a presentation that focused on the necessity of increasing the daily consumption rate of liquified oxygen from 400,000 litres to 500,000 litres, and the measures being taken to provide constant supplies to hospitals. “The ministry has been working on increasing production to satisfy the needed consumption rates,” said Zayed. The ministry has also contracted a number of companies to produce an extra 70,000 litres per day to act as a reserve for the second wave of the pandemic. Zayed confirmed that the ministry is working, in coordination with oxygen-producing companies, on expanding the storage capacity of medical oxygen and finding a suitable mode of transportation to ensure its availability in each governorate on a daily basis. The minister noted that work is underway to raise the efficiency of gas networks in isolation, fever, and chest hospitals. Zayed also gave a presentation on the latest developments of the coronavirus, discussing the number of new cases, recoveries, hospital discharges, and the rate of infection in the country during the past week. According to Zayed, Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria have the highest infection rates across the country during the past week.
