Liberia has just commissioned its first-ever medical oxygen plant at Star Base on Bushrod Island to tackle health cases.

The president of Liberia George Manneh Weah has just commissioned the first-ever medical oxygen plant to tackle critical health cases in the country.

The Medical Oxygen plant has the capacity to produce 100 cylinders (~50Nm3/hour) of medical oxygen per day at 93+3% purity. The Oxygen Plant which was set up by the government of Liberia, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other strategic partners is located at Star Base on Bushrod Island.

An excited President Weah joined dignitaries at an old peacekeeping force headquarters called “Star Base” in western Monrovia on Tuesday to launch the plant.

While celebrating this achievement, President Weah described the establishment of the Oxygen Plant as an excellent mark of good and realistic collaboration between the Government of Liberia with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other strategic partners.

“We place immense value on this timely support to protect the country against future emerging and re-emerging public health threats,” the President said.

Health Minister Wilhelmina Jallah said local hospitals should now know Liberia had an oxygen plant they could order from.

Before the onset of Covid and during most of the initial period of the outbreak, Liberia had fewer than five medical oxygen tubes, in a country of over five million people.

The new plant is intended to serve an estimated population of about two million inhabitants in the capital, Monrovia, and surrounding regions, the WHO says. Twenty local biomedical technicians and operators have been trained by a team from South Africa to operate the facility.

Another plant will be installed in the western Liberian region of Bomi, toward the border with Sierra Leone. Liberia lost the highest number of the more than 11,000 people who died in the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreaks due to factors including lack of oxygen.