RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The Amazonian city of Manaus has started administering coronavirus vaccines, bringing a ray of hope to the largest city in the rainforest, whose health system is collapsing amid rising infections and decreasing oxygen supply.
The governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, led a ceremony that started the vaccination campaign on Monday night in Manaus, an isolated riverside city with 2.2 million inhabitants.
Vanda Ortega, 33, of the Witoto ethnicity and nursing technician, received the first dose of CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by the biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, from Beijing.
“I want to thank God and our ancestors,” said Ortega, who is also a volunteer nurse in his indigenous community.
Brazil started on Monday to implement its national immunization program with 6 million doses of CoronaVac in almost a dozen states, and expects to receive 46 million doses by April to distribute among the states. The Amazon received 256,000 doses.
The state government started on Tuesday to distribute doses to municipalities. The priority in the first phase of vaccination will be health professionals, elderly people over 80 years old and indigenous people in about 265 villages.
Amazonas has recorded at least 232,000 cases of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to official data. The state is experiencing a devastating resurgence of infections and a lack of oxygen supplies.
Hospitals in Manaus admitted few new patients with COVID-19, causing many to suffer from the disease at home and some to die. And many doctors in Manaus had to choose which COVID-19 patients can breathe while desperate relatives looked for oxygen tanks for their loved ones.
The city is receiving an average of four flights by the Brazilian Air Force per day to increase oxygen supplies, in addition to a daily load from the city of Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon River, according to authorities.
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who Bolsonaro regularly criticizes, has authorized the sending of a caravan of trucks loaded with 107,000 cubic meters (3.78 million cubic feet) of oxygen that is due to arrive in Amazonas on Tuesday, according to state government.
Even with Amazonas receiving support, Bolsonaro has criticized Maduro.
“If you want to offer us oxygen, we will receive it without problems,” Bolsonaro said on Monday. “But he (Maduro) could provide emergency aid for his people, too, right? The minimum wage there doesn’t buy half a kilo of rice ”.
This Sunday, the Brazilian Ministry of Health sent seven oxygen generating plants, which once installed will supply oxygen to 100 ICUs.
The government of Amazonas transferred 18 patients by plane to the state of Goiás on Monday. The state has already transferred 112 patients for treatment in the Federal District, Brasília and other states, according to the state health department.
The collapse of the health system in Manaus, which was already in a critical situation last April, generated criticism of the government for not having anticipated the problems. Thousands of people protested in cities across Brazil on Friday, the same day images appeared showing desperate relatives searching for oxygen for their loved ones.
Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello admitted on Monday that the federal government knew on January 8 that the oxygen supply could run out in the Amazon capital, a week before people died in intensive care beds. The speed of hospitalizations has increased significantly in the past few days and has made it impossible for the supplying company to meet demand, said Pazuello.
A new strain of coronavirus circulates in Manaus. There have been concerns about greater transmissibility or potential for reinfection, although such 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 was at least partially responsible for driving the second wave of Manaus.
Jesem Orellana, an epidemiologist at the public research institute Fiocruz Amazônia, said that the increase in deaths in Manaus is not necessarily due to the new mutation of the coronavirus.
“Since October, there is a problem of overcrowding in hospitals. People do not arrive early and end up being admitted to the hospital late, in a more deteriorated state, ”Orellana told the Associated Press.
“In all places where there is a chaotic situation, lethality is higher, but not necessarily because of the severity of the infectious agent, but for other factors: there are fewer doctors, health professionals are tired, there is a lack of medicines and ICUs are overloaded”. Orellana added. “All of this creates a climate that favors premature death.”
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Associated Press video journalist Fernando Crispim, from Manaus, contributed to this report.