Rachel Humphreys speaks to the Guardian correspondent in Latin America, Tom Phillips, about the Covid crisis in Brazil. An increase in infections linked to a seemingly more contagious new strain has overwhelmed hospitals in the state of Amazonas, leaving many without the most basic supplies. The circumstances were so bleak that the oxygen tanks were rushed across the border into Venezuela, the economically collapsing neighboring country, with its leader, Nicolás Maduro, condemning what he called “Jair Bolsonaro’s public health disaster”.
Tom tells Rachel about how the public reacted to Bolsonaro and how his government is dealing with this latest wave of infections. The inoculation started last Sunday, weeks after other Latin American countries, such as Chile and Mexico. But Brazil, which has 212 million citizens, has so far secured only 6 million doses of China’s CoronaVac vaccine and 2 million of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine.
Archive: YouTube – Airside TV – Tour Manaus; BBC News; G1; Sky news; KondZilla – Bum Bum Tam Tam (2021); Al Jazeera; Bloomberg; France 24
Photo: Marcio James / AFP / Getty Images
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