Covid-19: lacking oxygen, Manaus sinks into health chaos
The families of patients of Covid-19 patients line up to fill their oxygen tanks in Manaus on January 15, 2021. AP - Edmar Barros
Text by: Achim Lippold Follow
7 min
While the vaccination campaign finally started last week in Brazil, the situation is increasingly dire in Manaus.
Already hard hit by the first wave of Covid-19, Manaus is now suffering the full brunt of the second wave with in addition a mutation of the virus.
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An “
apocalyptic
” situation similar to that of “
a war
”, or even an “
unprecedented human tragedy
”, this is how the inhabitants of Manaus describe the crisis in which their city is sinking.
Hospitals in the capital of the Amazon state are completely overwhelmed and distress calls are increasing in the face of the lack of oxygen in intensive care units.
Cries of distress like the one posted in a
video
widely shared on social networks.
“
Have mercy on us.
The situation is very serious.
People are dying from lack of oxygen,
”explains Thalita Rocha in this testimony.
She is a psychologist in Manaus and has just been released from a public hospital where her stepmother, suffering from Covid-19, was admitted.
On the phone, still in shock, Thalita Rocha recounts what she saw.
" It was horrible.
Words fail me to describe these scenes worthy of a war.
People suffered and died of suffocation.
Imagine… they were trying to suck in the air and couldn't ”.
To save her mother-in-law, Thalita and her husband had to buy an oxygen cylinder themselves.
But it was too late.
“When we arrived at the hospital with oxygen, we were able to increase its oxygen saturation rate.
But according to the doctor, her organs failed because she was without oxygen for a long time ”.
Stories like this are common these days.
Thalita Rocha tells us that a few days ago, five people were discovered dead at home, deceased from Covid-19 without anyone being able to provide assistance.
Ambulances transformed into intensive care unit
The lack of oxygen in hospitals even forced the authorities to accept aid from Venezuela, which sent several trucks loaded with this precious gas.
This humanitarian gesture was a relief, but it is not only oxygen that is lacking in Manaus.
According to the local Samu rescuer, Denison Vilar do Samu, there are very few operational ambulances, barely fifty for a city of more than two million inhabitants
.
“99% of the people we take to hospital are patients with Covid-19.
But often they stay on the stretcher of the ambulance because there are not enough beds in the hospitals.
Suddenly the ambulance is immobilized and the other patients have to wait ”.
According to epidemiologist Jesem Orellano of the Fiocruz Institute in Manaus, this unprecedented crisis is the result of several factors.
“Generally speaking, the medical infrastructure is very poor here in Manaus.
There is a great social inequality in the city and the political class is very corrupt ”
, adds this specialist according to which the situation weighs heavily on morale.
He believes the authorities in Manaus and those in the state of the Amazon have simply been unable to deal with the pandemic.
But according to Jesem Orellano, the population also has a great deal of responsibility
.
“If you go to the popular neighborhoods in the suburbs of Manaus, people behave like there is no pandemic.
They do not really respect all these barrier gestures such as social distancing, hand disinfection or wearing a mask ”.
To this situation has been added the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus, continues the researcher, who qualifies Manaus as
“the world capital of the Covid”.
The responsibility of President Jair Bolsonaro
According to Jesem Orellano, the city has become an
“open-air laboratory where the virus can circulate freely”.
Despite the contamination which is increasing, the local authorities did not want to take restrictive measures.
It was only Monday, January 25 that the governor, under pressure, decreed a one-week confinement.
For the rescuer Denison Vilar do Samu, the responsibility for this tragedy falls on
the Bolsonaro government
which knew since the beginning of the year that oxygen was going to be lacking in the hospitals.
He does not understand why the federal authorities are standing idly by.
“I remember a few years ago when I was in the army, we set up a field hospital for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
And today, with the current government, we are not even able to set up a field hospital for the inhabitants of Manaus!
"
The rescuer asked the President to make decisions to curb the spread of the virus.
"He should already stop minimizing the effect of the pandemic and encourage people to protect themselves,"
says Denison Vilar do Samu.
Faced with the inaction of President Jair Bolsonaro in this health crisis, voices are increasing to
demand his dismissal.
I didn't see much of a difference.
If there was, it's really not much.
Unfortunately, the population is a little tired of all that, and does not respect this decree of isolation.
In Manaus, a quarantine little respected and hard to apply
Martin Bernard
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