Hospitals in the Brazilian city of Manaus have reached breaking point while treating Covid-19 patients, amid reports of severe oxygen shortages and desperate staff.

The city, in Amazonas state, has seen a surge of deaths and infections.

Health professionals, quoted by local media, warned “many people” could die due to lack of supplies and assistance.

Brazil has recorded more than 205,000 virus deaths – the second-highest tally in the world, behind the US.

Amazonas suffered heavy losses in the first wave of the pandemic but is also being badly hit by a new rise in infections.

Refrigerated containers were brought to hospitals to help store bodies last week, as authorities declared a state of emergency.

Jessem Orellana, from the Fiocruz-Amazonia scientific investigation institute, told the AFP news agency that some hospitals in Manaus had “run out of oxygen” with some centres becoming “a type of suffocation chamber” for patients.

The researcher told Brazilian media she had received reports from the front-line of “dramatic” scenes playing out in some hospitals.

Reports in the daily …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]