Lack of oxygen exacerbates the coronavirus crisis in Mexico and Brazil

In Mexico City, which has the highest level of hospitalizations with 88% occupancy, getting oxygen for COVID-19 patients has become a

real ordeal.

Rosalinda Martínez faces this nightmare every day.

“

I want to save my mom

.

It requires a large tank so that I can continue to have it (alive), ”the woman assured Noticias Telemundo.

[Follow our coverage on the coronavirus pandemic]

Jorge Chávez lives a similar situation: he

arrived at 5 am for oxygen

for his son.

Man has witnessed the desperation of people to get hold of this vital gas.

“They are desperate because they can't get it.

Besides the cost there are a lot of people ”, he added.

"I want to save my mother": the battle of Mexicans to get oxygen to their relatives with COVID-19

Jan. 16, 202102: 15

According to the authorities,

the increase in hospitalizations is the result of the end of the year holidays

.

"It was the product of contagion in family gatherings or parties that took place between the week of December 24 and January 2," said the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum.

The increase in cases makes scenarios like this more and more frequent: in the main square of the Iztapalapa mayor's office

an endless line awaits a free oxygen refill

.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a group of people are waiting to get a PCR test to determine if they are sick with COVID-19 or not.

People wait to fill oxygen tanks for their relatives infected with coronavirus, at a free government oxygen post in Mexico City, on January 6, 2021. REUTERS / Carlos Jasso

In the midst of this panorama, the country registered

140,000 deaths from coronavirus, in

addition to adding for the second consecutive day

more than 20,000 new infections in 24 hours

, authorities from the Ministry of Health reported on Saturday.

[Los Angeles becomes the first county in the country to reach one million cases of COVID-19]

With these data, Mexico remains the

fourth country in the world with the most deaths from the pandemic

, behind the United States, Brazil and India, and number 13 in terms of number of infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Crisis in Manao, Brazil

Thousands of kilometers away, the capital of the state of Amazonas, Manaus, in Brazil, suffers a similar situation.

Doctors in the largest city in the Amazon rainforest have to

choose which COVID-19 patients can breathe

amid declining oxygen stores.

Relatives of COVID-19 patients purchase oxygen tanks from a private company in Manaus, Brazil, on January 15, 2021. REUTERS / Bruno Kelly

Some of those suffering from oxygen shortage describe the situation as a

war scene

in which relatives live in anguish as they see their loved ones die of suffocation.

“When we saw that there was no more oxygen, the desperation and screaming began inside the hospital.

I ran out screaming that the oxygen had run out and that everyone was going to die,

”Thalita Rocha, who was in the care of her mother-in-law with COVID-19 in a basic care unit, told Noticias Telemundo.

Meanwhile, his father-in-law was also torn between life and death in another center.

“My husband was desperate looking for oxygen for both of us and had to choose.

He took it to my mother-in-law

”, said Rocha.

Despite the effort, her mother-in-law did not resist and died hours later.

["Science will be at the forefront of my Administration": Biden introduces more members of his Cabinet]

Stories like this woman's are repeated throughout Manaus where, in the face of the hospital crisis, many families have found it necessary to

use their own resources to save the lives of their loved ones.

“We couldn't get a place in any hospital and we had to bring my aunt and my grandmother home and

set up an ICU here

,” said Sâmela Hidalgo.

His family had to

queue for 24 hours

to get it.

"We were desperate because the longer we were in line, the less time was left of life and oxygen for them," he added.

Faced with the health chaos, the federal government was forced to send

military planes with oxygen tanks

to the isolated city of 2.2 million people

.

On Friday one landed with 6,000 liters of oxygen that was distributed to hospitals.

But as the pandemic hits hard, locals wonder how long the supply will last.

The multinational White Martins, an oxygen supplier to the local government, said in a statement that it was considering

diverting part of its supply from neighboring Venezuela

.

It was not immediately clear whether this would be enough to cope with the spiral of the crisis.

"Yes,

there is a collapse in the Manaus Health System

. The line to get a bed is growing a lot, we have 480 people waiting now," Brazil's Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said Thursday.

"We are beginning to withdraw patients with less serious conditions to reduce the impact," he added.

City hospitals have admitted few new COVID-19 patients.

Many were flown to other states.

The situation has triggered the deaths in homes in Manaus

and just this week, the number of deaths with COVID-19 in their homes increased by

130%.

Between Monday and Friday, more than 1,000 dead were buried in Manaus.

Like hospitals,

cemeteries cannot cope,

and the lines of hearse at their entrances further mourn the panorama of chaos that surrounds the city.

Since the start of the pandemic, President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the risks of the disease, saying that the economic consequences of the pandemic will kill more than the virus.

Why is oxygen scarce?

The

medical facilities in developing countries often lack reliable supply of oxygen

found in the countries of Europe and America of the North, where hospitals treat oxygen as a fundamental need, which is supplied in liquid form by truck cistern and is brought directly to the beds of coronavirus patients.

A patient with COVID-19 needs

between 60 and 80 liters of oxygen per minute,

while patients with other diseases receive only six liters.

[Ambulances in Los Angeles give up treating the most serious patients due to the hospital collapse]

But even in Los Angeles, a wave of coronavirus cases caused oxygen shortages and forced ambulances to stop treating the most seriously ill patients due to the hospital collapse.

Edited by Gabriela Martínez with information from Víctor Silva, from Mexico City, Ana Peralta, from Rio de Janeiro, AP and Efe.