Hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria, are grappling to manage a fresh flood of Covid-19 patients. Africa News reports that some medical workers have had to stay on duty for days. A mutant strain of the virus has reportedly driven Nigeria’s case tally up significantly since December.

Dr Adejumo Olusola, a physician, said, “Some of us here, we don’t even sleep at night, because we have calls, we have to go and attend to patients. Some of us don’t leave, we stay in the hospital, two, three days, some five days.”

According to Africa News, in Lagos alone, the demand for oxygen has jumped from 70 tanks a day to 350, as a result of the second wave. Like elsewhere, this has created a medical oxygen crisis in Nigeria.

Lagos health commissioner, Akin Abayomi, however, said, “We’ve never not had enough oxygen. We’ve been close to not having enough and we’ve been stretched, but we’ve never actually been in a situation where we have patients that need oxygen, and there’s no oxygen.”

Nevertheless, $17 million to build 38 oxygen plants, and to repair existing ones, was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday.

Umm Muhammed Umar