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The Brazilian government has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the crisis. Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski last week ordered the government to present a response plan to address the oxygen shortage, citing the “omissive behavior” of the Jair Bolsonaro administration in the face of the emergency.
He also points out that the local government in Amazonas has not informed federal authorities of the impending oxygen shortage. “The Ministry of Health … became aware on January 8 by an e-mail sent by the manufacturer of the product,” said the report. The supplier, named in the report as White Martins, first informed the state government of Amazonas and then federal authorities, the report says.
It is not known why the notification to the federal government of oxygen shortages would have been entrusted to a private contractor. According to the solicitor general’s report, the Manaus health service knew the city’s health system had been on the brink of collapse since early January.
Manaus city officials did not respond to a CNN request for comment.
An Amazonas state government spokesperson told CNN they would provide “clarifications” to the attorney general’s office, and added that the state continues to work to alleviate the crisis, including, ” transporting oxygen from other states to Manaus, installing mini oxygen at hospitals, transferring patients for assistance to other states, and requisitioning all production from local oxygen suppliers. “
But the solicitor general’s report raises questions about why the federal health ministry was unable to help prevent the collapse of Manaus’ health care system after receiving notice. Ministry officials visited Manaus in early January and Pazuello personally visited the city from January 11 to 13.
The disaster struck hospitals in the city the next day. On January 14, Amazonas state officials announced that hospitals and emergency rooms in Manaus were facing crippling oxygen shortages, amid the surge in Covid-19 cases. “We are facing many difficulties in obtaining medical supplies. And as everyone follows, our main difficulty now is to have oxygen,” Governor Wilson Lima told reporters.
Although the Brazilian Air Force has responded by providing emergency supplies of liquid and gaseous oxygen, shortages persist. Logistics problems have compounded the crisis, as supplies from Manaus mainly enter the city via the Amazon River. There is only one highway out of town, which connects it to the neighboring state of Amapá.
Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello defended his agency’s response. “We acted immediately,” he told a press briefing in Brasilia on Monday. “There was no indication of a lack of oxygen at our meetings in early January. The rise in cases has been very rapid,” he said.
“When we [visited Manaus] sure [January] 4, the problem was not oxygen. The problem was the structure of the bed, the number of Covid-19 patients, the queues, ”Pazuello also said.
The appointment by Bolsonaro of Pazuello, a former military commander, as head of the Ministry of Health, has been sharply criticized by the opponent, as the death toll from Covid-19 in Brazil remains the second highest in the world, behind only that of the United States.
Bolsonaro himself has rejected all responsibility for the city’s murderous crisis. “There is a problem in Manaus … We mourn the deaths from asphyxiation, from lack of oxygen, and people blame the government. We have allocated billions to the states, but the state responsible for the lack of drugs is the state. and municipal health, secretaries, ”he told his supporters on Monday.
His statement followed Vice President Hamilton Mourão’s assertion last week that no one could have predicted the collapse of the city’s healthcare system.
“You cannot predict what would happen with this strain (of virus) that is happening in Manaus. Totally different from what happened in the first half,” Mourão said.
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