Samoa's Tupua Tamasese Meaole hospital at Motootua now has a new oxygen generation plant with the commissioning of a 200 cylinder per day capacity unit on Thursday.
The New Zealand funded plant means the Ministry of Health will no longer be relying on American Samoa for the supply of life saving oxygen.
Speaking at the commissioning, Minister of Health Valasi Tafito Selesele said Samoa has relied on supplies from American Samoa at the height of the measles pandemic and continuing with the coronavirus pandemic.
"As some of you may be aware, since 2019 the Ministry of Health has had to [resort to] the transporting of oxygen cylinders in part to Pago Pago via sea freight for refilling there, due to our greatly reduced capacity," he said.
New Zealand High Commissioner to Samoa, Dr Trevor Matheson said his country has contributed $NZ665,000 to the procurement, installation and commissioning of the plant, including maintenance and training.
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