Mexico is mired in a dire situation due to the pandemic.
The country experienced
its worst day
on
Thursday
with new records of infections, 22,339 cases and 1,803 deaths in the last 24 hours, amid a worrying shortage of oxygen tanks and hospital beds.
Mexico City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, also added three days in a row with more than 300 daily deaths from COVID-19.
On Thursday alone, it registered 26,152 deaths, 354 than the day before.
Across the country, 61% of hospital beds are occupied, in the capital, hospitals are at 89% of capacity.
[Follow our coverage on the coronavirus pandemic]
The odyssey of getting oxygen
Difficulty finding beds in health centers has caused families to try to treat their relatives at home and to face a shortage of oxygen tanks.
That has been accompanied by a rise in prices, as well as an increase in theft of cylinders.
A woman pulls an oxygen tank for her relatives infected with coronavirus, as part of the city government's free recharge program, at the Iztapalapa mayor's office, in Mexico City, on January 18, 2021. REUTERS / Toya Sarno Jordan
Eulogio Cruz, a 58-year-old street vendor, is often left empty-handed after the frantic search for oxygen for his sister-in-law, who is ill and is being treated at home.
"We are very concerned," he told the Reuters news agency desperately, after spending a whole day queuing for a tank.
"These prices are outrageous and the end is not in sight
,
" he
added.
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Refilling a 24-hour tank costs about $ 160, more than 20 times the country's minimum daily wage, which is about $ 7.
The value has quadrupled since the end of last year, as demand exceeds supply.
Cruz ended up turning to a friend who lent him a tank, but the high cost of refilling it forced his sister-in-law to use less oxygen than her doctor had prescribed.
In addition, the brother of his friend was also infected and asked Cruz to return the tank.
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In the metropolitan area, where some 22 million people live, more than 20 medical oxygen dealers consulted by Reuters this week had no tanks in stock.
Queues stretch for hours at the few stores with inventory on hand.
Some states have also seen alarming episodes related to desired oxygen tanks.
Earlier this week, a
gunman stormed a public hospital
in the border state of Sonora and left with
seven portable bottles.
No one was injured, and local security officials later noted that most of the stolen tanks were empty.
The search for dangerous homemade solutions
The situation has also given rise to home remedies, such as homemade
oxygen concentrators
that authorities have warned are dangerous.
A video circulating on Facebook showed a Mexican couple connecting an air pump from a fish tank to a hose to try to increase the man's oxygen level.
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The secretary of civil protection of the city of Puebla, Gustavo Ariza, issued a public warning in which he asked that people not resort to such improvised devices, noting that they do not increase the oxygen concentration and that they simply recirculate the air.
"This is a hoax, please don't let people do it
," Ariza said.
The federal undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, joined the warnings.
"We are concerned that time is spent in the hope that this will work, and as hours go by, perhaps days, very few days, the person deteriorates," he said.
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López-Gatell said that the Mexican government will authorize rules that would give priority to the production of oxygen for medicinal use over industrial use to release supplies.
The government also intends to buy oxygen tanks abroad.
Desperation for the vaccine
On the other hand, the Ministry of Health ordered its governors to stop trying to buy vaccines against COVID-19 on their own.
"From a technical point of view, the guideline is to recommend that this not be done because then everyone goes their own way and then we are not talking about a state strategy," López-Gatell added.
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At the beginning of the week, the Government of
Nuevo León
announced that its Secretary of Health would travel to
Russia to try to bring the Sputnik V vaccine to his state
and analyze what facilities can be given to entrepreneurs from that country for the installation of a laboratory in the region.
Relatives of COVID-19 patients purchase oxygen tanks from a private company in Manaus, Brazil, on January 15, 2021. REUTERS / Bruno Kelly
In the coming days, deaths in the country will reach 150,000, only behind the United States, Brazil and India.
The state of Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, has been particularly affected in recent days.
With information from AP, Efe and Reuters.
