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SAO PAULO (AP) – Dozens of COVID-19 patients in the largest city in the Amazon rainforest will be moved out of state as the local health system collapses and dwindling reservoir stocks oxygen means the Brazilians started to die of breathlessness at home.
Doctors in Manaus, a city of 2 million people, choose which patients to treat and at least one of the city’s cemeteries is asking mourners to line up to enter and bury their dead. The strains have prompted the Amazonas state government to say it will send 235 patients who are dependent on oxygen, but are not in intensive care units, to five other states and the capital, Brasilia.
“I want to thank the governors who give us their hand in a human gesture,” Amazonas state governor Wilson Lima said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Everyone looks at us when there is a problem like the lungs of the Earth,” he said, alluding to a common description of the Amazon. “Now we are asking for help. Our people need this oxygen.
Manaus officials recently called on the federal government to boost their dwindling supply of oxygen needed to keep patients with COVID-19 breathing breathing. According to official data, the city’s 14-day death toll is approaching the peak of the first wave last year.
In that first peak, Manaus consumed a maximum of 30,000 cubic meters (about 1 million cubic feet) of oxygen per day, and that more than doubled, to nearly 70,000 cubic meters, according to White Martins, the multinational company that supplies oxygen to Manaus. “Public hospitals. In his press conference, Governor Lima White Martins for the lack of supplies.
“Due to the strong impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, oxygen consumption in the city has increased exponentially over the past few days from an already extremely high volume,” White Martins said in a statement sent by email to The Associated. Hurry. “The demand is much higher than anything can be expected and… continues to grow significantly.”
The company added that the Manaus location presents difficult logistics, requiring additional inventory to be transported by sea and air.
The government in Lima has also issued more restrictions, including the suspension of public transport and the establishment of a curfew between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The new measures challenged protesters who on Thursday morning displayed Brazilian flags in the streets. Lima, once seen as an ally of President Jair Bolsonaro, has been criticized by supporters of the Tory leader for imposing new restrictions aimed at stemming the recent outbreak of the virus.
Bolsonaro downplayed the risks of the disease, saying the economic fallout from the pandemic would kill more than the virus.
Park of the Tribes, a community of more than 2,500 Indigenous people on the outskirts of Manaus, has gone more than two months without any resident showing symptoms of COVID-19. In the past week, 29 people have tested positive, according to Vanda Ortega, a volunteer nurse in the community. Two went to emergency care units, but no one has yet to be hospitalized.
“We are really very worried,” said Ortega, who is of the Witoto ethnicity. “It’s chaos here in Manaus. There is no oxygen for anyone.
The surge in cases follows two months of more frequent rallies, first in local elections in November with large rallies and long lines of voters, followed by year-end festivities.
The city of Manaus declared a state of emergency on January 5. The decree allows the municipal government to temporarily subcontract personnel, services and equipment without public tenders. A separate decree suspends authorizations for events and revokes those already granted, while a third establishes teleworking for non-essential municipal employees until March.
An article published this week indicated that a new strain of the coronavirus was circulating in Manaus in mid-December. The document said this raised concerns about greater transmissibility or potential for reinfection, although such possibilities remain to be proven.
A positive COVID-19 test does not reveal the patient’s variant of the virus, but it is likely that the new strain was partly responsible for the second wave of Manaus, according to Pedro Hallal, an epidemiologist who coordinates the Federal University of the program. of Pelotas, by far the most comprehensive in Brazil.
“If it circulated in mid-December, it probably circulates a lot more,” Hallal said by phone. “So I think at least some of the new infections are due to the new strain. We don’t have precise data on this, but it is very likely. “
Earlier Thursday, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper said the Brazilian Air Force could transfer up to 750 patients from Manaus, something neither the Air Force nor local health authorities had confirmed to the AP Thursday afternoon. ___ Biller reported from Rio de Janeiro.
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