MEXICO CITY – On New Year’s Day, dozens of people lined up with empty oxygen tanks in one of the most affected neighborhoods in Mexico City to take advantage of the city’s offer of free oxygen refills for patients with COVID-19.
Jorge Infante joined the queue at 8 am with three tanks that he intended to fill for sick family members. He learned of the offer, only on his third day, Friday, through Facebook.
Demand for oxygen as the virus spreads across the capital of 9 million residents has driven prices up and queuing up. Infante said that by filling his three tanks for free, his family would save about $ 45 a day.
Iztapalapa, the largest neighborhood in the capital and one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, is an extensive area with few resources.
“Economic conditions are not first-world,” said Carlos Morales, health director at Iztapalapa. “It means that people are struggling to get tanks.”
Morales said he is trying to fill about 50 tanks a day.
In another part of the capital, some residents spent New Year’s Eve in lines that meandered down a street and around a corner, waiting to replenish oxygen containers for relatives suffering from COVID-19.
Blanca Nina Méndez Rojas was waiting in line on Thursday to refill a tank for her brother, who recently was discharged from a public hospital after contracting COVID-19.
“We just left him disconnected (from oxygen), so he has to be completely reclined so he doesn’t get agitated or have problems, until we get back with the tank,” said Méndez Rojas, noting “two weeks ago a 70 pesos recharge cost ($ 3.50) and now it’s 150 pesos ($ 7.50). “
In a city where people are afraid to go to hospitals and those who are going to have difficulty finding a bed, it becomes a matter of life and death.
Juan José Ledesma, retired from Mexico City, fell ill with his wife and son. When his test came back positive on December 16, he had to stay home – and see a private doctor – because the local hospital had no rooms.
“I have been taking medicine prescribed by a private doctor because what happened was that we went to a health center and there was no room,” said Ledesma. “There was no place because many people were coming in” for treatment.
Since then, his son – who has recovered – has had to go out three or four times a day to try to refill his father’s oxygen tank.
“The price has gone up two or three times,” said Ledesma. Reflecting on the problem, he began to cry softly. “I think of rural areas, where things are getting harder and harder and people have to wait longer or they really can’t afford it.”
Iván, an employee of an oxygen refill shop who only gave his first name because his bosses did not allow him to speak to reporters, acknowledged that sometimes there were so many people waiting, desperate for gas, that they could not fully fill all their containers.
“There are times when we don’t have enough oxygen to completely fill everyone’s tanks,” he said. “There are times when we have to reduce refueling, so that everyone in line can at least take some oxygen home to their relatives.
To make matters worse, city officials did little to fight price increases that doubled or tripled the price of a refill – but closed a black market in which industrial-grade oxygen producers sold cans for medical use. Industrial oxygen, used to operate acetylene torches, is not as pure as medical grade gas.
The city government has initiated a program to give some people cylinders or oxygen concentrators, which are machines that remove oxygen from the air and do not need to be recharged. But there is not enough for everyone, and buying one of the machines on the private market is prohibitively expensive for most families.
Before the pandemic, basic machines started at around $ 900, but since then prices have increased to $ 1,500 or more.
“Concentrator prices have skyrocketed, there has been a lot of profit,” said Méndez Rojas.