Faced with Covid-19, Mexico lacks oxygen
Audio 02:33
Relatives of Covid patients line up to reload their medical oxygen cylinders in the capital Mexico City, where demand is exploding due to the saturation of hospitals which forces many patients to seek treatment at home.
© RFI / Alix Hardy
By: Alix Hardy Follow
7 min
In Mexico, oxygen has become a scarce commodity.
In this country which has passed the 150,000 death mark, the sudden acceleration of the coronavirus pandemic has saturated the country's hospitals and led to an explosion in the demand for oxygen for thousands of patients forced to seek treatment at home.
In the capital, the inhabitants line up at dawn in front of the establishments that provide cylinders and medical oxygen.
Publicity
From our correspondent in Mexico,
In the line that formed in front of the room, each person represents a patient with Covid-19, whose recovery is suspended until their next delivery of oxygen.
The families who come here have already accomplished the feat of obtaining carboys, also in short supply in the capital.
Now they queue for several hours a day to recharge them.
Alexandra waits next to a larger sky blue canister.
“
My father needs oxygen, he caught Covid-19 and his oxygen level is low, below the 90% threshold.
The doctor told us that he needed oxygen but the small cylinders were emptying so quickly that we looked for a large one,
”she explains, then added:“
We have been waiting for two hours and half past, and it's the third day in a row that we come to fill them ... Many points of sale are in shortage of oxygen so no choice, you have to get up early, stand in line and take your pain in patience.
"
Patients treated at home in the face of hospital saturation
Like Alexandra's father, thousands of patients seek care at home regardless of the severity of their condition.
The hospitals of the capital are saturated and the relatives of the sick are struggling to make up for the lack of care.
Alexandra describes the situation: “
We are constantly monitoring him, even at night, we monitor his oxygen level and how much is left in the cylinder.
It's difficult, we hardly sleep… And this virus is costing us a lot of money, we have to pay for drugs and oxygen refills.
My cousin who accompanies me had to ask his employer for permission not to go to work to deal with all this…
”
Alexandra has not finished her sentence when a man hands her a brochure: “
It can help your family.
Take me, it helped me a lot when I was in the hospital.
The leaflet touts a fake medicine supposedly capable of oxygenating the cells of the human body.
Counter scams
Faced with the oxygen shortage, prices are skyrocketing and scams are proliferating.
Daniel Tello has created a site which lists the approved places in the capital and updates their supply.
Its goal: to counter scams that take advantage of people's distress.
“
People are desperately looking for where to get the materials.
That's why we started to systematize all this information a little reliably, because in front of the scams multiply.
There are those who say “
This is my last bottle, hurry and transfer the money to me, I won't be able to reserve it for
you for
long
” and you pay what you think is the last bottle in the whole town, and at that moment your interlocutor disappears.
There have also been cases of unscrupulous sellers selling helium cylinders in place of oxygen.
"
Authorities have announced the massive importation of cylinders from the United States and made four free oxygen refill centers available in the capital.
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Coronavirus
Mexico
Health and medicine