Sancti Spiritus Receives Oxygen Supply for COVID-19 Patients

A cargo of some thirty oxygen cylinders was received on Monday in Sancti Spiritus airport from the province of Santiago de Cuba.

This is an unprecedented operation both in Cuba or in this territory. Due to the dangerous nature of this type of transfer in airplanes, it is always necessary to take extreme security measures, said Lieutenant Colonel José Luis Díaz who, in his nearly 40 years of experience flying AN-26 planes, had never conducted such an operation.

This is one of the alternatives being implemented to alleviate the shortage of the gas in the different Cuban territories after the country’s main oxygen plant went out of service.

Other strategies and innovations have also been carried out in Sancti Spiritus to optimize this resource as much as possible.  

Also on Monday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel toured the San Antonio de los Baños air base in the western province of Artemisa, which concentrates the production of medical oxygen for the country’s health centers.

En la Gasificadora de La Habana también se libra una batalla por la vida. Allí palpamos compromiso de obreros que saben lo decisivo de su trabajo en momentos muy difíciles. Cada cilindro que llenan sale de inmediato hacia los hospitales. #CubaSalvaVidas pic.twitter.com/84N6OfINiT

— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) August 17, 2021

Díaz-Canel also visited the Gasification Plant of the Gases Industriales de Cuba Company, whose staff works 24 hours a day to produce the medical oxygen needed by the health system.