Russia starts buying oxygen for ventilators from Kazakhstan and Finland

Russia began to import medical oxygen from Kazakhstan and Finland to avoid interruptions in its supply to hospitals, reported Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov at a meeting of the Presidium of the Coordination Council for Combating COVID.

According to him, Russia purchased more than 100 tons of oxygen from Kazakhstan for deliveries to the southern regions of the country and another 20 tons each – in Finland for shipment to the north-western and western regions of Russia. At the moment, as Manturov noted, negotiations are underway on constant oxygen supplies from Finland at 240 tons per month, as well as from China.

“If we talk about the country as a whole, we have to use absolutely all the possibilities,” he explained, adding that the four main oxygen producers in Russia are working at maximum load.

Manturov also emphasized that a large number of chemical, metallurgy, oil refining, shipbuilding, nuclear industry and military-industrial complex enterprises allocated more than 100 tons of technical oxygen per day for its processing into medical oxygen.

According to him, the number of regions where there is an acute shortage of medical oxygen has decreased from nine to five. The Altai and Trans-Baikal Territories deserve special attention.

Earlier, WHO announced that the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic began in the world.

“The delta variant is now present in 111 countries and we expect it to become the dominant strain worldwide, if not already,” said Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus, head of the organization.

He also drew attention to “a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines.”

“I called for a mass vaccination of at least 10% of the population in each country by September, at least 40% by the end of this year and at least 70% by the middle of next year. To achieve these goals, we need 11 billion doses of vaccine, ”Gebreyesus emphasized.

At the same time, he said, vaccination alone will not stop the pandemic. The head of WHO recommended that countries take a targeted and consistent approach using the full range of protective measures.