Coronavirus: epidemic progresses in Brazil, scenes from "horror film" in Manaus

Text by: François Cardona

In Brazil, the epidemic is accelerating, with more than 3,000 deaths and 40,000 cases of contamination. The situation is becoming catastrophic in Manaus, in the Amazon region. Authorities are overwhelmed by the number of dead, hospitals and cemeteries are saturated.

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From our correspondent in Rio de Janeiro,

The images of the largest cemetery in Manaus, opening mass graves to put the bodies brought into the cold room, shocked the Brazilians.

Overwhelmed, the mayor of the city evokes scenes from "  horror film  ", and in an emergency, he decided that a maximum of five people would now be allowed to participate in the burials.

The coronavirus is hitting the Amazonian capital hard, which concentrates most of the cases of contamination in the region and the medical personnel are sorely lacking in protective equipment.

Manaus has only around 50 intensive care beds for a population of 1.7 million. Its health system, already very precarious, poorly prepared to deal with the epidemic, is collapsing with the fear now of an explosion of deaths.

The region is extremely large, and the situation is all the more complicated for isolated inhabitants suffering from coronavirus - transport in the Amazon is often done by rivers. The city has started building a field hospital and appealed to doctors across Brazil to help them.

► Read also: Coronavirus: in Brazil, the undervalued number of contaminations raises fears of a massacre

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