Doctors in the Amazon rainforest’s biggest city are having to choose which COVID-19 patients can breathe amid dwindling oxygen stocks and an effort to airlift some of the infected to other states.
Some hope for Manaus, an isolated city of 2.2 million people, landed in a Brazilian air force plane on Friday with 6,000 liters of oxygen that was distributed to hospitals. But as the pandemic hits hard, locals wonder how long the supply will last.
In a city considered to be the capital of the Amazon, every oxygen tank counts.
On Thursday, as heavy rain poured down in Manaus, Rafael Pereira carried a small tank containing five cubic meters of oxygen for his mother-in-law at the 28 de Agosto hospital. He didn’t want to be interviewed because of his stress, but he looked relieved when the tank — which he said would aid her breathing for an additional two hours — was taken inside.
Despairing patients in overloaded hospitals waited as oxygen arrived to save some, but came too late for others. At least one of the cemeteries of Manaus had mourners lining up to enter and bury their dead. Brazilian artists, soccer clubs and politicians used their platforms to cry for help.
The local government’s oxygen provider, multinational White Martins, said in a statement that it was considering diverting some of its supply from neighboring Venezuela. It wasn’t immediately clear whether this would be sufficient to address the spiraling crisis.
“Yes, there is a collapse in the health care system in Manaus. The line for beds is growing by a lot — we have 480 people waiting now,” Brazil’s health minister Eduardo Pazuello said in a Thursday night broadcast on social media. “We are starting to remove patients with less serious (conditions) to reduce the impact.”
Hospitals in Manaus have admitted few new COVID-19 patients, suggesting many will suffer from the disease at home, and some may die.
