– Crazy chaos – VG

– I came back with half a tank of oxygen, but it was too late. I passed the cylinder to another family who needed it. Hoping to save someone else’s life, he tells VG.

In the Brazilian state of Amazonas, the new year began with the shocking news that the hospitals in the city of Manaus were empty of oxygen.

Desperate patients are not given vital help to breathe after what is described as a total collapse in the city’s medical care.

Health professionals tell Brazilian news channels that they give morphine and painkillers to patients they cannot save. Globo newspaper writes about patients who leave hospitals because they prefer to die at home.

The drama that is unfolding now adds to an already critical situation: with more than 210,000 people who have lost their lives, Brazil is the country in the world with the most deaths by corona after the United States.

A new mutation of the virus, the so-called Brazilian variant P. 1, is creating concern among experts, and it does not facilitate the situation for a health system that is already in trouble.

A study published in January shows that only half of those admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 in northern Brazil survive. Of those admitted to the intensive care unit, 8 out of 10 patients die.

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For Luis Queiros (32) and his family, the result was fatal.

Grandparents Antonio Pereira da Silva (80) and Joecy Coelho da Silva (81) spent the New Year’s weekend together just the two of them. Then they both got sick.

She was admitted to the hospital on January 8, shortly after. A tough battle over the beds ended with the two in separate hospitals.

Early in the morning of January 13, the family was informed that the grandmother had become much worse.

– We thought it was some kind of reaction to the disease. It wasn’t until the next day that we found out that their oxygen supply had been reduced. There was a great lack of oxygen in all the hospitals in the city.

The next two days were a mad rush to save lives. Long lines and large crowds formed outside the factories where they sell oxygen.

– The queues of cars went through the entire neighborhood. There were policemen, ambulances with patients inside, people on foot with cylinders ran past to get to the front of the queue. It was insane chaos, says Lous, who took pictures of the tail:

But the oxygen tanks in the hospitals ran out faster than they could be filled. When the patients began to die, Luis describes a desperate battle against the clock. At 6 a.m. on the second day, the brother called. So Luis had been in line since 3 at night.

He said, “Listen, you only have ten minutes, now you have to come.” But where we were was at least a 25 minute drive.

They did not arrive in time.

When people came to the hospital with oxygen, other patients called for help, Luis says. He says most people shared what little oxygen they had.

Now the family is doing what it can to save Grandpa.

– The doctors and psychologists at the hospital say that it is better not to tell my grandfather that grandmother is gone. Ask for her every day. My mother has to lie and say it’s okay.

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UiO immunologist Anne Spurkeland explains how viruses mutate:

Politicians in Brazil now argue about who is to blame. A government report claims that local and national authorities were notified already six days before the crisis in Manaus was a fact on January 14, writes CNN.

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello was in town just days before chaos broke out, and the Supreme Court has now requested that he be investigated. The highest court in the country will know if it could have done something to prevent the serious crisis.

President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly criticized what he calls the hysteria surrounding the pandemic. As the people of Manaus wage a desperate battle, he recently told a radio station that there is no point in making the virus “a trauma.”

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In recent days, planes of the Brazilian Air Force have been carrying oxygen to the inaccessible city in the middle of the jungle. In addition, trucks have arrived from neighboring Venezuela with supplies:

Several hospitals report that they now have oxygen available, but Victor “Vito” Israel (31), who organizes oxygen distribution in the city on his own initiative, tells VG that the crisis is almost over.

– People who need oxygen call me every day. They cry and say it’s about life.

Every day he receives containers full of oxygen from people who want to help all over Brazil. Everything from celebrities to ordinary people will contribute. The commitment is great.

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Victor’s mother has also needed oxygen since she fell ill in September last year. Before the new year, the company that delivered oxygen called and asked to retrieve the containers. They were about to run out.

– Then to me, who am a completely normal person, they told me that there was already a shortage of oxygen on December 29, he says resigned. He believes the authorities must have known as well.

– Do you feel that Bolsonaro cares about the people of Manaus?

– I don’t think he cares about Brazil. We have a president who is about to end the country and who is letting people die. He is responsible for much of this, says Victor.

– Here in the Amazon we have always had the feeling that Brazil has forgotten us.