The Cuban government hid for more than two months the breakdown that occurred in the Oxicuba medicinal oxygen production plant, the main one in the country, which started up again on September 4, and not yet able to meet demand, in the midst of the worst moment of the coronavirus pandemic.
The production line for medicinal oxygen, an essential product for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, was stopped for 100 days, whose lack has caused numerous deaths of patients in hospitals and other health centers.
According to a report from the official portal Cubadebate, "on May 26, OxiCuba S.A. stopped its production and began to distribute from inventories and a small plant that remained operational."
However, despite the fact that the breakdown in the factory occurred on that date, this information was kept absolutely secret and was only reported on August 15, when the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, informed the state press that due to to the Breakage of a piece in the main production plant on the Island, oxygen productions were "limited."
The next day, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel was shown visiting two plants of the Armed Forces that were added to the production of gas, along with another donated by Russia to help alleviate the national crisis with oxygen coverage.
In other words, the cause of the lack of oxygen in hospitals for COVID patients was only made known to the population when the solution to the problem could already be shown.
According to information that appeared in the official media in August, once the breakdown occurred, the government created a command post to direct the allocation of the little oxygen available to the hospitals, which was available in part thanks to what was stored, and to the productions of another small plant located in Santiago de Cuba.
This week José Manuel Gámez Álvarez, general manager of OxiCuba, expressed to Cubadebate that after the May break, "the first months there were high levels of inventory in the country, therefore, it was not felt", something that contradicts the many complaints shared on social networks, from Cubans whose relatives suffered the lack of the precious medicine.
The leader limited himself to regretting that in August, "with the rise in COVID-19 cases, the last month of the breakdown was very hard for this country," before optimistically announcing that OxiCuba produces "70,000 cubic meters of liquid oxygen daily, above the demand of the health system which is currently 40,000."
In recent days, when the country reports thousands of new coronavirus cases and dozens of deaths, Díaz-Canel has visited the Oxicuba plant several times, occasions on which he has praised the repair works and the work of technicians and workers.
Despite the optimism that the leader tries to show, the Cuban industrial gases company reported that for at least two months it will not be possible to restore the distribution levels of necessary medical oxygen in the country's health centers.
According to Yamilet Fuentes Pardiñas, general director of the entity, in recent months the Ministry of Public Health needed about 40,000 cubic meters per day and at the moment it is impossible to recover the inventories.
"Now we have to get back to those numbers," he said.
What do you think?
SEE COMMENTS (2)Filed in: