The United States will be sending 250 ventilators to Nigeria to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
President Donald Trump confirmed this during a press briefing at the Oval Office in the White House, Wednesday.
“We’re sending 250 ventilators to Nigeria,” he said.
While responding to a question about taking action against persons not using face masks nor observing social distancing, President Trump said, “I am signing a bill and you criticise us. Here’s the story: There is nothing I can do to satisfy the media, the democrats or the fake news, and I understand that.
“We did the greatest job mobilisation with the ventilators, and I don’t think there’s a story on what a great job we did.”
He said the US has been sending ventilators to countries to help patients in critical conditions survive the disease.
“Now we are helping Germany and we are helping many other countries – France, Spain, Italy and Nigeria. We are sending 250 ventilators to Nigeria.”
Recall last week, Nigeria’s Minister of Information Lai Mohammed announced that President Trump, while speaking during a telephone conversation with President Muhammadu Buhari, said the US would be donating a number of ventilators to Nigeria.
A ventilator is a machine that takes over the body’s breathing process when disease has caused the lungs to fail.
This gives the patient time to fight off the infection and recover.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 80% of people with Covid-19 recover without needing hospital treatment.
But one person in six becomes seriously ill.
In these severe cases, the virus causes damage to the lungs, causing the body’s oxygen levels to drop and making it harder to breathe.
To alleviate this, a ventilator is used to push air, with increased levels of oxygen, into the lungs.
