In its continued efforts to provide support for the Government and people towards combating the COVID-19 pandemic in the Country, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), today, 17 September 2020, distributed over 140 cylinders of Liquid Oxygen (LOX) to 2 Isolation Centres in Abuja.
The beneficiary Isolation Centres are the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwawalada and the Department of State Services (DSS) Medical Centre, Asokoro. Before today’s distribution in Abuja, the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yola and Adamawa State Specialist Hospital as well as other Isolation Centres in the Country had been benefiting from the NAF’s LOX distribution.
The oxygen was produced by the NAF LOX Plant at the 103 Strike Group (103 STG), NAF Base, Yola, which was commissioned on 10 July 2017. The LOX Plant has the capacity to produce 1,000 litres of liquid oxygen every 8 hours, which is in excess of the NAF’s requirements for its air operations and for use in its Medical Centres across the Nation.
Speaking while taking delivery of the oxygen cylinders at the flight line of the 307 Executive Airlift Group (307 EAG), Abuja, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, who was represented by the Chief of Medical Services, Air Commodore Gideon Bako, emphasized that the NAF would continue to support the Federal Government’s COVID-19 response through the provision of LOX as well as the availability of its medical facilities for use as isolation centres whilst sustaining the conduct of airlift support operations and medical outreach programmes.
He further disclosed that, the NAF’s LOX Plant at the 103 STG NAF Base, Yola, runs 24hrs to ensure uninterrupted production of pure LOX. According to him, the LOX is gasified and stored in cylinders for supply to Isolation Centres and designated hospitals as part of the NAF’s contribution to efforts aimed at tackling the COVID-19 emergency.
It would be recalled that the NAF, at the height of the Pandemic, converted its Accident and Emergency Unit at 063 NAF Hospital (063 NAFH) in Abuja to a COVID-19 Management Centre.
The facility provided a 25-Bed COVID-19 Observation and Treatment Centre with a small Operation Theatre and sections to treat serious symptomatic COVID-19 cases as well as observation and treatment of mild and asymptomatic cases.
Also, as part of its contributions towards fighting the pandemic, the NAF, in May 2020, unveiled 2 emergency ventilators locally produced by a Team of Researchers from the Air Force Research and Development Centre and Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna in partnership with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the Department of Mechatronics, Federal University of Technology, Minna.