New Strain leaves brazilian city Short of oxygen For ITS hospitals

The Brazilian city of Manaus — population, two million — is facing an extreme shortage of essential hospital supplies and bed space after a surge of coronavirus cases, prompting two army planes to fly in 18 tons of oxygen cylinders from Sao Paulo as a stopgap.

At one hospital, doctors told media they had been forced to choose which COVID-19 patients would receive treatment, with others being turned away. A virologist told local media that hospitals in Manaus had become “suffocation chambers,” and that the patients who did survive were likely to develop permanent brain damage.

Last May, Manaus consumed a maximum of 30,000 cubic metres of oxygen per day; now, it’s more than 70,000 cubic metres.

This latest uptick has been put down to the emergence of a new strain of Sars-cov-2 — the “P.1” variant, which is more easily transmissible and produces a higher viral load in infected patients. Six out of every 11 new cases in Manaus are with this new strain.