Doctors use own vehicles to transport patients as residents seek oxygen tanks on the black market, local media reports.
Brazil’s Air Force has delivered emergency supplies of oxygen to the jungle state of Amazonas, and premature babies were to be airlifted to other states from local hospitals overwhelmed by a devastating new surge in COVID-19 cases.
Doctors were using their own vehicles to transport patients, as Manaus residents sought to buy oxygen tanks on the black market, local media reported. Desperate relatives, protesting outside city hospitals, said patients had been taken off ventilators as oxygen ran out.
Sao Paulo Governor João Doria said some 60 premature babies in incubators needed to be relocated to other parts of Brazil, while officials said hospitals needed three times more oxygen than was available.
Manaus was one of the first cities to reel from the pandemic in Brazil, which has the world’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll after the United States. Critics of President Jair Bolsonaro said the grim situation there was just the latest example of his poor handling of the crisis.
Relatives of patients hospitalised or receiving healthcare at home, mostly suffering from COVID-19, gather to buy oxygen and fill cylinders at a private company in Manaus [Bruno Kelly/Reuters]Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who has downplayed the pandemic and opposed stricter social controls to halt its spread, said on Friday the government had already done what it could in Manaus.
“The problem is terrible there. Now, we have done our part,” he told supporters outside the presidential palace, adding that the military was installing a temporary hospital.
Critics drew parallels between the lack of oxygen and the failure to begin vaccinations in Latin America’s biggest country. The government wants to start administering shots next week but has yet to announce an official start date.
In this file photo from September 2020, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro adjusts his mask during a ceremony about the extension of emergency aid [File: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]India will be able to decide on exports of coronavirus vaccines within the next few weeks, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told the Reuters news agency this week.
“The policy of course is we will start the roll-out in India. We have our own challenges,” Jaishankar said.
The worldwide coronavirus death toll surpassed two million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally.
Pot Banging
With pressure on the president growing, some Brazilians on social media called for a nationwide pot-banging protest from home windows in the afternoon, hashtagged #BRAZILSUFFOCATED.
The pot-banging protests were a hallmark of the early days of the pandemic, and usually, signal a drop in support for Bolsonaro.
A health worker stands in front of an empty oxygen tank station where used, empty cylinders stand at the only oxygen station inside Joventina Dias Hospital, a small clinic in Manaus [Edmar Barros/AP Photo]Health authorities said oxygen supplies had run out at some hospitals and intensive care wards were so full many of the patients were being airlifted to other states.
The Air Force flew six cylinders with 9,300 kilogrammes (20,500 pounds) of oxygen from São Paulo state to Amazonas state capital Manaus in northern Brazil, where it will be distributed to hospitals, according to a statement from the military. Another cargo is being loaded in São Paulo on Friday, destined for Manaus.
The Air Force said a flight carried nine patients and five doctors from Manaus to Teresina in northeastern Brazil, and evacuations will continue with two planes taking patients to six cities.
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Brazil airlifts emergency oxygen to Manaus amid COVID surge - Al Jazeera English
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