In the Dominican Republic, demand for oxygen has risen in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic and more in cases where complications from the disease arise, but oxygen tanks, a rare business in the country, are not only sold to hospitals or by Covid. -19.
Some families have to buy oxygen tanks because of other end-stage diseases, such as cancer, so there are new and used tanks. However, on the internet, there are very few companies that offer this service, only about 15, most of them in the National District and Santo Domingo Este.
A large 6,200 liter oxygen tank costs about RD $ 25,000 when used, and these also come with a regulator and are sold full, according to a Listín Diario study. A new oxygen tank, with all its accessories, costs about RD $ 58,000; and they are the ones who buy hospitals in most cases, albeit to a lesser extent.
One of the employees of the companies dedicated to the sale of oxygen noted that the health centers there have cylinders installed and that filling this tank daily can cost between RD $ 900 and RD $ 1,400, depending on the company running it. supplies. . and cubic feet.
“There are patients who are at home, who have already been delivered to the doctors because their disease is not a solution, and they can consume one cylinder every 24 hours. The family has to fill it in every day, ”says another employee of one of these companies. Here an empty and used oxygen tank costs RD $ 15,000.
For both employees in these companies’ sales departments, delivering oxygen to hospitals and clinics is’ cheap ‘as they can cost up to RD $ 1,400 for one day depending on the tanks they have, which is convenient for many patients, although they stress, “the bad thing is that there are hospitals that take years to pay. They are poorly paid.” “However, for a family that has to fill the tank at least 15 times a month because they have a patient in a vulnerable condition, the investment would be approximately RD $ 13,500.
“In the early months of Covid-19, demand has skyrocketed, but it’s almost normal,” explains the salesperson of a medical oxygen sales company, who pointed out that most medical centers have large tanks. . termed as thermal. The seller adds that in medical centers, the tanks are two to two meters long and five to seven feet wide in circumference, and that in these tanks, the oxygen flows through a pipe.
EVENING CLOCK
State of emergency.
President Luis Abinader asked the National Congress to extend the state of emergency for an additional 45 days, beginning March 2.
The presidential petition was sent to the Chamber of Deputies, which immediately began to hear it.
No commission
The first thing the delegates did was vote to prevent the petition from being sent to a committee for study. He immediately followed the reading of the resolution that the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies had already prepared.
The PLD criticizes
Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) deputies spokesman Gustavo Sánchez lamented the improvisation that he assures led Luis Abinader’s government on the issue of the new coronavirus pandemic.