Brazil flies emergency oxygen into pandemic-struck state of Amazonas

Covid-19 patients’ relatives forced to buy oxygen tanks on black market

Relatives of Covid-19 patients in Manaus, Brazil, carry oxygen cylinders bought from a private company. Reuters.

Brazil’s Air Force flew emergency oxygen supplies on Friday to the jungle state of Amazonas devastated by the pandemic.

Doctors in Amazonas were using their own vehicles to transport patients, as locals sought to buy oxygen tanks on the black market, according to media reports.

Desperate relatives, protesting outside hospitals in the state capital of Manaus, said patients had been taken off ventilators when oxygen ran out.

Health authorities there said oxygen supplies had run out at some hospitals and intensive care wards were so full that scores of patients were being flown to other states.

Doctors reported sharing oxygen between patients, alternating every 10 minutes.

The air force flew cylinders with 9,300 kilograms of oxygen in from Sao Paulo state with another cargo expected on Friday.

It said a flight carried nine patients from Manaus to Teresina in north-east Brazil.

Evacuations will continue, with two planes taking patients to six cities.

Officials had planned to fly 61 premature babies in incubators from Manaus, but the relocation ultimately was not needed because emergency oxygen supplies were found.

The World Health Organisation said ICU occupancy in Manaus was at 100 per cent for two weeks, causing shortages of oxygen and also of gloves and protective equipment for medical and laboratory staff, many of whom are infected.

“This a situation where your whole system begins to implode,” said Dr Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief.

Brazilians protested against the right-wing president’s handling of the health crisis on Friday night. Residents of the country’s largest cities banged on pots and pans from their windows.

Many shouted: “Out with Bolsonaro”, some crying “genocide”. The protest on social media was labelled #Brazilsuffocated.

Pot-banging protests were a hallmark of the early days of the pandemic by people critical of Jair Bolsonaro’s tepid response.

A government plan to start inoculating Brazilians against Covid-19 early next week was in disarray.

Mr Bolsonaro said a plane standing by since Friday to pick up two million doses of an AstraZeneca vaccine from India’s Serum Institute would now depart in two or three days.

Brazil’s Health Ministry requested immediate delivery of six million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese company Sinovac and imported by Sao Paulo state’s Butantan biomedical centre.

It said it needed them for its planned launch of immunisations next week.