RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The Amazonian city of Manaus began administering coronavirus vaccines, providing a ray of hope to the largest city in the rainforest, whose health system is collapsing amid a increased infections and decreased oxygen supply.
The governor of the state of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, led a ceremony that launched the vaccination campaign Monday night in Manaus, an isolated city on the river of 2.2 million people.
Vanda Ortega, 33, a member of the Witoto ethnic group and a technical nurse, received the first dose of CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac.
“I want to thank God and our ancestors,” said Ortega, who is also a volunteer nurse from her indigenous community.
On Monday, Brazil began its national vaccination program with 6 million doses of CoronaVac in nearly a dozen states and expects to receive 46 million doses by April to distribute them among states. Amazon received 256,000 doses.
The state government on Tuesday began distributing doses to municipalities. The priority in the first phase of vaccination will be health personnel, the elderly over 80 years and the indigenous people of about 265 villages.
Amazonas has reported at least 232,000 cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic, according to official data. The state is in the midst of a devastating resurgence of infections and a lack of oxygen supply.
Manaus hospitals have admitted few new patients with COVID-19, which has caused many to suffer from the disease at home and some to die. And many Manaus doctors have had to choose which COVID-19 patients can breathe while desperate family members search for oxygen tanks for their loved ones.
The city receives an average of four flights by the Brazilian Air Force a day to boost oxygen supplies, along with a daily shipment from the city of Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon River, according to officials.
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which Bolsonaro regularly criticizes, authorized the sending of a caravan of trucks loaded with 107,000 cubic meters (3.78 million cubic feet) of oxygen that is expected to reach the Amazon. Tuesday, depending on the state. government.
Although Amazonas welcomed the support, Bolsonaro threw criticism at Maduro.
“If you want to offer us oxygen, we’ll get it without any problems,” Bolsonaro said Monday. “But he (Maduro) could also give emergency help to his people, right? The minimum wage there does not buy half a kilo of rice ”.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health sent seven oxygen generating plants on Sunday, which once installed will supply oxygen to 100 ICUs.
The Amazon government on Monday transferred 18 patients by plane to the state of Goiás. According to the state health secretariat, the state had already transferred 112 patients to be treated in the Federal District, Brasilia and other states.
The collapse of the health care system in Manaus, which had already gone through a critical situation last April, sparked criticism of the government for allegedly failing to anticipate the problems. Thousands of people protested on Friday in cities across Brazil, the same day images emerged showing desperate relatives searching for oxygen for loved ones.
Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello admitted Monday that the federal government knew on Jan. 8 that the oxygen supply could be depleted in the Amazon capital, a week before people died in intensive care beds. The speed of hospitalizations has increased significantly in recent days and made the supply company unable to meet demand, Pazuello said.
A new strain of coronavirus has been circulating in Manaus. There have been concerns about increased transmissibility or reinfection potential, although these possibilities remain unproven.
A positive coronavirus test does not reveal which variant of the virus the patient has, but some epidemiologists have speculated that the new strain has been at least partially responsible for driving the second wave of Manaus.
Jesem Orellana, an epidemiologist at the public research institute Fiocruz Amazonia, said the increase in deaths in Manaus is not necessarily due to the new coronavirus mutation.
“Since October, there has been a problem of overcrowding in hospitals. People don’t arrive early and end up hospitalized late, in a more deteriorated condition, “Orellana told The Associated Press.
“Everywhere there is a chaotic situation, lethality is higher, but not necessarily because of the severity of the infectious agent, but because of other factors: there are fewer doctors, health professionals are tired, medicines are lacking and ICUs are overflowing “Orellana added. “All of this creates a climate that favors premature death.”
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Associated Press video journalist Fernando Crispim in Manaus contributed to this report.