Covid in Peru: oxygen shortage much greater than during the first wave
Audio 01:29
Hundreds of Peruvians line up in front of an oxygen dispenser in the Villa El Salvador district in Lima on February 23, 2021. © RFI / Wyloen Munhoz-Boillot
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
In Peru, the number of Covid-19 cases has quadrupled compared to December.
The demand for oxygen has therefore exploded in recent months, causing a much greater shortage than during the first wave last year.
This time, even the private clinics in the capital are short.
A shortage which forces thousands of Peruvians to queue, often for days, in front of the rare distributors of oxygen in the hope of being able to acquire it in time to save their loved one.
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With our correspondent in Lima,
Wyloën Munhoz-Boillot
We are in Villa El Salvador, a popular area of Lima.
In this dusty street, hundreds of oxygen bottles stand as far as the eye can see, watched over by a masked crowd.
Most of these people spent the night outside in the cold.
Standing next to an oxygen bottle still empty and larger than her, Laura Vergara seems at the end of the line: “
I've been
standing in line
and sleeping here for a week.
My husband is in respiratory failure.
I begged the hospital for an intensive care bed but was told there was no more oxygen to feed them.
"
Before resorting to this free distribution, this shopkeeper and mother of 3 - like many others here - took on debt to buy oxygen, the shortage of which caused prices to explode.
“
I have already spent over
$ 20,000 (80,000
soles) to save my husband's life,”
she continues, “
when I earn barely $ 270 (
1,000 soles) a month.
That's why I'm here, I don't have a dime left.
"
►
Read also: Anti-Covid vaccination in Peru: a scandal leads to the resignation of several ministers
His despair and his exasperation, all here there share.
On this day, the last in the line has the number 550, but the company in charge of the oxygen distribution can only fill 200 bottles a day and again, only half, so that there is all.
In the morning, an argument breaks out in the queue.
Some denounce the presence of Mafiosi who seek to make money by selling their place in the queue, despite the presence of the police.
This situation is found today across the country.
Chile has offered to donate 40 tonnes of oxygen per week to Peru, but that will not be enough to fill the gap, estimated at around 100 tonnes of oxygen per day.
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Peru
Coronavirus