The tough postcards of saturation of the san …

After the exponential increase in cases of Covid-19 in Mexico, hundreds of people are lining up to get supplies oxygen, which not only has become scarce in the country’s capital, but has also increased its prices due to demand.

The postcard is repeated in several places in Mexico: neighbors who crowd into places where medicinal oxygen is sold and they wait for hours to fill their tanks.

The footage comes on the same day that the local government extended the red alert for at least a week for the hospital saturation greater than 85 percent. The measure involves the closure of non-essential activities due to the maximum risk of epidemiological fire contagion.

“It cost a little more work and the prices went up,” said Elsa Imelda Venegas Peñaloza, who has a patient at home recovering from the illness.

Elsa is among those who had to come to the mayor’s office in Iztapalapa, in the eastern Mexican capital, to have her oxygen cylinder refilled for free due to the price hike. “The last time I filled it was 180 pesos ($ 8.98) now I’m over 200 pesos ($ 9.98)“, he detailed.

Every day at this location, at least 50 people line up for up to six hours to fill the oxygen cylinders. “Many of us are infected, there are many who need oxygen in addition to those who already need it,” Elsa said.

The situation, those in line admit, has become distressing in recent weeks, as cases in Mexico have increased exponentially to add 1,493,569 confirmed cases and 131,031 deaths.

Scams in the midst of desperation

The shortage has led the government of the capital to seek the distribution of free oxygen in some municipalities, but the desperation has also led people to fall into certain scams on social networks where they offer oxygen and do not deliver it. .

Last week, the Mexico City cyber police alerted the population to fraud committed in the purchase and rental of oxygen cylinders online.

Eliud Guillén has a relative with covid-19 who was complicated by pneumonia and needs oxygen. He says that at least earlier this month, getting it took a lot of work. “I must have suffered on January 1st when everything was closed“, he says.

Although he does not have to do the daily search, since the tank lasts at least 8 days for a member of his family, he admits that all the logistics “are very heavy and exhausting”. In this sense, she stresses that the help of the government of the capital was important for citizens like her because it facilitated the access to oxygen.