Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Havana: Antonio Gonzalez, who works as a skipper of a boat for Marlins Marine in the Cuban central province of Ciego de Avila, has changed his daily routine.
He is part of a local project to help COVID-19 hospitals and wards meet the demand of medical oxygen amid surging daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations across the province.
Gonzalez, along with his workmates, uses air compressors from boats for recreational services to produce medical oxygen at a concentration of 40 per cent.
"We are working tirelessly, but this is very important for the country nowadays," he said. "We are going through a difficult situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic."
The workers of Marlins Marine have already delivered 1,500 cylinders of oxygen to the public health system covering Ciego de Avila and neighbouring provinces.
According to Emigdio Diaz, director of Marlins Marine, the medical oxygen is provided to COVID-19 patients who do not need ventilators.
"We are working in line with international standards", he said. "This very much helps people, whose health condition is not life-threatening, recover from the contagious disease."
Cuba has confronted medical oxygen shortage due to technical problems in the island's biggest plant, which is located on the outskirts of the country's capital of Havana.
As a result, the Cuban government, which has recently received donations of oxygen concentrators from overseas, seeks solutions to tackle the emergency.
Located some 430 km east of Havana, Ciego de Avila has been one of the country's hotspots during the third wave of COVID-19.
With a capacity of more than 4,000 hospital beds, the Cuban central province is among the places most affected by the Delta variant across the island nation.
Angel Sanchez, a worker of Marlin Marine, said that innovation and creativity are fundamental to do this work. "Many times, we have to be very resourceful to deliver oxygen cylinders but it is worth it," he noted. "We are saving lives."
