3 years ago
Brazilian hospitals in the city of Manaus have reached to the breaking point treating Covid-19 patients as they lack oxygen cylinders, health workers are seen desperately trying to save lives of people giving manual oxygen in one of the viral videos circulated in country.
The city, in Amazonas state, has seen a surge of deaths and infections. Health professionals, quoted by local media, warned "many people" could die due to lack of supplies and assistance.
Brazil has recorded more than 205,000 virus deaths - the second-highest tally in the world, after the US. Refrigerated containers were brought to hospitals to help store bodies last week, as authorities declared a state of emergency.
Jessem Orellana, from the Fiocruz-Amazonia scientific investigation institute, told the AFP news agency that some hospitals in Manaus had "run out of oxygen".
Amazonas Governor Wilson Lima said the state was "in the most critical moment of the pandemic" and has announced a nightly curfew will begin at 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on Friday to try to contract the spread of virus.
Marcellus Campelo, a local health secretary, said the state needed three times the amount of oxygen it can produce locally and appealed for help.
Brazil's vice-president shared images on Twitter of the air force transporting hospital supplies, including oxygen cylinders and stretchers, to the city as reports of the situation spread throughout the country.
