Kampala, Uganda | URN | Nile Breweries Limited (NBL), the leading beer manufacturer in Uganda has donated 300 oxygen cylinders to regional referral hospitals.
The oxygen cylinders worth 330 Million Shillings, were handed over to Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja on Wednesday 21, July 2021 in Kampala. Each of the referral hospitals will receive 20 cylinders filled with oxygen.
According to Nabbanja, the donation has reduced the burden of the government to buy cylinders. She noted that currently, the government is having a shortage of 18,000 oxygen cylinders.
This donation comes at a time when regional hospitals have been experiencing a shortage of oxygen which is critical in the management of COVID-19 cases.
The Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) Acting Executive Director Francis Kisirinya, says that they are encouraging other members to contribute towards the fight of COVID-19 as it was in the first lockdown of 2020.
Kisirinya also called for accountability and transparency for the items donated to the national task force.
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The Director of Corporate and Legal Affairs Nile Breweries, Onapito Ekolomoit says that their target was to see that at least the major referral hospitals in 17 districts across the country benefit from the donation.
Representing Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, the senior human resource officer Muganzi Stephen Merengye says the donation is timely. He says that the oxygen plant often breaks down after being overstretched.
He says the plant was working beyond its normal capacity because of the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
He adds that the hospital has been collecting oxygen from Roofing in Kampala which has been expensive to the hospital. According to Merengye, the hospital requires 20 oxygen cylinders daily to at least match up with the surging number of COVID-19 patients admitted at the facility.
