Abstract:

The demand for oxygen during the COVID-19 has no equivalent in the past and caused a lot of strain on the hospital infrastructure as well as raised concerns about the ability of oxygen systems to meet the escalating needs of patients. This is a literature review on the demand for oxygen therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to conduct an in-depth evaluation of previous studies on the demand for oxygen therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study assesses the current understanding of the topic because of its relevance and influence on the health of different populations around the world. Pub Med, Science Direct, Google Scholar, the Lancet and EBSCO were searched using a series of combinations of the following keywords: oxygen demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, oxygen therapy, COVID-19 pandemic, access to oxygen therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges of oxygen services delivery and medical oxygen. The findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a substantial increase in the demand for oxygen therapy around the world due to the respiratory complications associated with the disease. The average monthly utilization of oxygen has increased due to the persistent increase in demand. Many health systems struggled to deliver oxygen therapy however, their efforts were futile due to the sudden increase in the number of patients that require oxygen therapy; problems related to the medical oxygen supply chain; lack of capacity to deliver oxygen therapy due to limits in infrastructure as well as other challenges.

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