SAO PAULO, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Amazonas state in northern Brazil announced a 10-day curfew to try to slow the spread of the
coronavirus, as cases soar and hospitals run out of beds and oxygen.
Authorities warned of a dire situation across the vast state. In its
capital Manaus, the health system has been pushed to breaking point.
The city has “run out of oxygen and some health centers have become a type of suffocation chamber,” Jessem Orellana, from the Fiocruz-Amazonia
scientific investigation institute, said.
Amazonas governor Wilson Lima said the state was “in the most critical
moment of the pandemic.”
The 7 pm to 6 am curfew begins Friday.
“These are difficult but necessary measures,” Lima said. “We are in a war
operation.”
According to official figures, Manaus on Wednesday saw a fourth straight
day of record burials — 198, with 87 of them deaths from Covid-19.
Oxygen is needed to treat Covid-19 patients suffering from respiratory
complications.
Amazonas produces “significant quantities of oxygen, but now our people
need oxygen and solidarity,” said Lima, who added some patients would be
transferred to other states.
Military personnel delivered 400 oxygen cylinders to Amazonas over the last five days.
Brazil has recorded more than 205,000 deaths from Covid-19, second only to
the United States.
The national average is 98 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, but in Amazonas
the figure is 142 per 100,000, surpassed only by Rio de Janeiro (158) and
Brasilia (145).
An expert studying coronavirus mutations in Amazonas said a new strain detected in the state is “very probably” more contagious than the original
virus, just like new strains found in Britain and South Africa.
Felipe Naveca said the variant, which the World Health Organization
described as “worrying,” may have spread throughout Brazil and could already be the dominant strain in Amazonas.
The worsening situation in Manaus was not due only to one variant, he
added, noting that authorities were expecting a rise in virus cases due to
end-of-year parties.
“We need urgent support from the population to reduce the transmission and slow down the virus’s evolution,” Naveca said.
Britain on Thursday said it was suspending all arrivals from South America
due to the new coronavirus variant. — NNN-AGENCIES
