Coronavirus In Brazil: COVID-19 Is Ravaging Brazil "Like A Horror Film"

Manaus, the capital city of Amazonas state, is tangled in chaos and desperation when the COVID-19 death rate here has become higher than that of any other city in Brazil. Coronavirus in Brazil is currently extremely unabating.

The number of deceased people here has hiked from 20-30 people before the pandemic to 100 people per day, after the city recorded the first coronavirus case on March 13. The medical system that was already under average in Manaus has crumbled due to the COVID-19’s effect.

The pandemic has also spread to the vulnerable indigenous peoples in Amazonas whose state is so large that it takes a number of days on boat to reach other towns and villages.

"It is a scene out of a horror movie. We are no longer in a state of emergency but rather of absolute calamity," said mayor Manaus Virgilio Neto.

Neto expressed his concern while saying that many have died at home and some of them might not have received medical care.

Amazonas is the state that bears the fourth most severe harm due to coronavirus in Brazil with 3,298 confirmed cases and 320 lives claimed. However, Manaus city, with a population of 1.7 million citizens, has the highest death rate among the 27 capital state cities in Brazil.

Although Brazil has become the nation with the biggest number of confirmed and deceased cases in the Latin America region, which are respectively 66,501 and 4,543, President Jair Bolsonaro seems to still be overlooking the danger of the pandemic and considers it common flu. Public health experts reported that the real number of contracted cases may be 15 times as high as the reported because Brazil has carried very few nCoV tests.

Hospitals in Manaus are struggling to cope with the rising number of infections. Some places must use refrigerated trucks to accommodate the bodies.

At a cemetery called Parque Taruma, excavators have to dig long holes in the ground to make a mass grave to bury the coronavirus victims. According to the mayor's order, no more than five relatives of the dead will be allowed to say goodbye.

The mayor said they are working hard on burying people and the had had gravediggers who also contracted the coronavirus. He is afraid that some would not make it.

Local authorities have set up a makeshift hospital, while the federal government themselves have sent doctors from all over the country to support Manaus.

However, these measures are too few and too late, shared by the entire intensive care unit (ICU) and 80% of the expert doctors located in the city of Manaus, infectious disease specialist at the Federal University of Amazonas Bernardo Albuquerque.

COVID-19 expects the climax of the disease would be in early May, but 90% of the ICU beds in the city have been filled with patients. The medical spots here lack protection gears for the staff along with medicines and other devices like X-ray machines and others.

People living in the rest of the Amazonas, some are a couple of boating days away from Manaus, have to travel to the city for medical treatment. Only 18 cities of Amazonas have roads linking to the Manaus capital, according to Albuquerque.

Amazonas have indigenous people than other Brazilian states, and they are more susceptible to foreign diseases because their immune system has never been exposed to them. Historically, they have suffered the virus and were completely helpless about it. Last week, at least three aboriginal people died from nCoV, about 15 of more than 30 people infected with the virus are being treated in Manaus.

Albuquerque said the state of Amazonas needs support as soon as possible. In details, he shared,

"If we could snap our fingers and say, 'let's have it all ready tomorrow,' that would be the ideal timeframe."

Coronavirus in Brazil is not the only alarming problem amid this global urgent situation. Take a look at more news of coronavirus over the world here:

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