Brazil's Amazonas state runs out of oxygen supply amid surge in COVID-19 cases

Healthcare system in Brazil's largest state, Amazonas collapsed on January 14 after hospitals’ oxygen supplies ran ‘critically’ short, posing threat to the lives of the COVID-19 patients. Many incoming patients were devoid of hospital beds as they were rushed to the medical centers in ambulances. Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said during a Facebook live with President Jair Bolsonaro that the healthcare system in the country had “collapsed” as Brazil’s largest states pleaded for help with an alarming onslaught of Covid deaths and infections. 

According to sources of AP, the intensive care units in the public Oceanico hospital in the Brazilian city of Niteroi witnessed a ‘tsunami’ of COVID-19 patients, and the number of medics was short to attend the wave of coronavirus patients. A team of ground reporters from the Associated Press that visited the intensive care ward called the situation worrying as the all beds at one of the many hospitals they visited were full. Most  ICU patients were put on ventilators or intubated t ogive supplemental oxygen which had depleted in supply. In Rio de Janeiro city, the public health network’s occupancy rate shot up of 93 percent in intensive care beds (ICU). In Curitiba, the occupancy reached 93 percent, as well. 

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Patients dying due to 'suffocation'

"I would say yes, there is a collapse in healthcare in Manaus. The line to get a hospital bed has grown a lot, today we have about 480 people waiting in line. And the reality is that there is a lower supply of oxygen—not an interruption, but a lower supply of oxygen,” Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello in his facebook address, describing the situation in Brazil as grim.

On Thursday, the government was forced to airlift COVID-19 patients to other Brazilian states with beds as the surge pushed the healthcare to the brink of its capacity. With the world’s second-largest COVID-19 death toll, Brazilian states of Amazonas reported that coronavirus patients across Brazil were dying due to a shortage of oxygen and suffocation. The country is awaiting a United States transport plane that is expected to send help with oxygen cylinders. 

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