Brazil’s Healthcare Collapse: Manaus Em …

In Manau, the capital of the state of Amazonas, the health collapse is such that due to the lack of oxygen tubes and the overflow of the hospital, people die in their homes. To help deal with the situation, a team of obituaries and pathology technicians visit homes where deaths have occurred daily to expedite the death certificate.

During the last week there were over a thousand funerals in Manaus, with a peak of 213 on Friday (8 per hour), of which 102 were due to the coronavirus. 186 people were buried Thursday, 198 Wednesday, 166 Tuesday and 150 Monday, half of them because of covid-19. Meanwhile, the families of those still fighting for their lives line up outside a private oxygen supply company, waiting for the product.

Due to the lack of space in hospitals, many of these patients have to cope with the disease from home, without the necessary medical help, increasing the risk of death. Again this week, local media reported: the number of deaths due to suspected covid-19 in their homes has increased by 130%.

“This week there has been a huge increase in household deaths. What was done in a month is now done in a week, ”assured Arlindo França, director of the Center for issuing death certificates at the Municipal Secretariat of Health. Although deaths are recorded across the city, many cases occur in low-income families, who live in precarious conditions and who only have the public health system to which they do not have access due to the crisis.

According to França, the situation is complicated at night, when the greatest number of deaths occur. “Our service only operates from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.And due to the collapse, funeral homes no longer collect bodies from homes to handle death certificates in hospitals, ”he explained.

Say goodbye to a relative in Manaus

This Saturday, within 10 hours, the team led by França took care of 23 families, who with the issuance of the death document were able to bury their loved ones.

During the service, technicians – with masks and the corresponding distance – corroborated with families the data of the victims and the symptoms they recorded before they died. They also checked the bodies for no vital signs and took samples for testing that will later confirm whether or not they are dead from the virus.

At the end of the examinations, the technicians issued the death certificate and the dead remained in the houses of the Waiting to be taken care of by funeral homes, a service that is only provided if families have the certificate and only during the daySince then, due to the collapse, the city has entered an eleven-hour curfew after 7 p.m.

Much like hospitals, cemeteries cannot cope and images showing rows of hearses at the entrances to these establishments are already common.

Manaus, the largest city in the region (with 2.2 million inhabitants), concentrates most of the victims of covid-19 in the state of Amazonas, which already has more than 6,000 dead and 226,000 infected.

Cacerolazos vs. Bolsonaro

This weekend, strong cacerolazos took place in Brazil against President Jair Bolsonaro, given the collapse of Manaus and the delay in the arrival of vaccines.

Bolsonaro’s administration is criticized for its inaction. Brazil is the third infected country, with 8.3 million, and already has 208,000 deaths, or 10 percent of the total of two million deaths the pandemic has caused so far.