coronavirus patients lies inside a neglected yellow shed on the grounds of its main hospital: an oxygen plant that has never been turned on.The plant was part of a hospital renovation funded by international donors responding to the Ebola crisis in West Africa a few years ago.
But the foreign technicians and supplies needed to complete the job can’t get in under Guinea’s coronavirus lockdowns — even though dozens of Chinese technicians came in on a charter flight last month to work at the country’s lucrative mines.
Unlike many of Guinea’s public hospitals, the mines have a steady supply of oxygen.As the coronavirus spreads, soaring demand for oxygen is bringing out a stark global truth: Even the right to breathe depends on money.