The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso ran out of available beds in the intensive care unit on Monday, the state prosecutor said.
According to the state health secretary, there were only five beds available in the ICU on Monday, but later that day, Alexandre Guedes, a prosecutor with the State Attorney’s Office, told CNN that the demand for the 332 total beds in the ICU in the state had exceeded supply.
“When the [State Health Secretary] made the official report, those five beds were available. But they have only stayed that way for a short time. We have a list of people who are still waiting for an ICU bed to be available. Some of them will die waiting for intensive care treatment, “said Guedes.
According to the judge of the Specialized Court of Health of Mato Grosso, José Luiz Leite Lindote, there have been 37 lawsuits filed by patients of Covid-19 in the Court of Justice of the State of Mato Grosso to obtain more beds in the ICU.
Some background: Since the pandemic began in Brazil in mid-March, Mato Grosso Governor Mauro Mendes has refused to build field hospitals, saying the money is better spent strengthening existing health facilities and adding ICU beds there. In a statement to CNN on Monday, the state government’s press office said “that will benefit the population of Mato Grosso, not only during the pandemic.”
Aside from Sinop, a thriving agribusiness city in the north of the state, there are no field hospitals outside of Cuiabá, the state capital. This means that rural patients must travel to the capital to receive adequate health treatment.
“And there is still no prospect of opening a field hospital in Cuiabá,” Guedes said Monday.
As of Monday, Brazil has at least 1,884,967 cases of the virus and 72,833 deaths.
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