Some struggle to get oxygen amid virus case surge
MEXICO CITY » On New Year’s Day, dozens of people stood in line with empty oxygen tanks in one of Mexico City’s hardest hit boroughs to take advantage of a city offer of free oxygen refills for COVID-19 patients.
Jorge Infante took his place in line at 8 a.m. with three tanks he wanted to fill for sick relatives. He had learned about the offer, only in its third day Friday, via Facebook.
The demand for oxygen as the virus spreads through the capital of 9 million residents has driven prices up and made lines long. Infante said that by getting his three tanks filled for free, his family would save about $45 per day.
Iztapalapa, the capital’s largest borough and one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, is a sprawling area of low resources.
“The economic conditions are not first world,” said Carlos Morales, Iztapalapa’s health director. “That means that people are suffering to get tanks.”
Morales said they are trying to fill about 50 tanks per day.
Elsewhere in the capital, some residents spent New Year’s Eve in lines that snaked down a street and around a corner, waiting to refill oxygen canisters for relatives suffering from COVID-19.
The city has seen a surge in coronavirus infections and the city’s hospitals are 87% occupied, straining oxygen supplies.
Blanca Nina Méndez Rojas was waiting in line Thursday to refill a tank for her brother, who was recently discharged from a public hospital after contracting COVID-19.
“We just left him disconnected (from oxygen), so he has to stay completely reclined so he won’t get agitated or have a problem, until we return with the tank,” Méndez Rojas said, noting “two weeks ago a refill cost 70 pesos ($3.50), and now it is 150 pesos ($7.50).”
In a city where people are afraid to go to hospitals, and where those that will go have trouble finding a bed, it becomes a question of life and death.
Juan José Ledesma, a Mexico City retiree, got sick along with his wife and son. When his test came back positive on Dec. 16, he had to stay home — and consult a private doctor — because the local hospital had no room.