[News] OMS dice que ola de COVID-19 en Amazonas de Brasil es peor a la de abril y mayo

[#Steeven.™]

The current wave of coronavirus in the Brazilian Amazon is worse than the one suffered by the region between April and May, and the health system runs the risk of "imploding", warned this Friday the director of emergencies of the World Health Organization (WHO ), Michael Ryan.

The critical situation in all of South America cannot be attributed exclusively to the new variant of covid-19 detected in the Brazilian region, but to non-compliance with the restrictions in force, the expert added.

"The situation in Amazonas, and particularly in Manaus, has deteriorated significantly in the last two weeks," Ryan confirmed in a press conference call.

"If things continue like this, we are clearly going to see a wave that will be worse than the catastrophic wave in April and May," he added.

"It would be a tragedy in itself," Ryan explained.

"Lack of oxygen supply, gloves" described the head of the WHO. "And another problem: health workers get infected" as it happened in the past.

When those workers, and lab employees, start to get massively ill, "your whole [healthcare] system starts to implode," Ryan said.

The state of Amazonas was one of the most affected in the first wave of the pandemic, with refrigerated trucks enabled to store bodies awaiting burial, and the situation worsened dramatically again in recent weeks.

Fears were heightened with the identification of the region as the origin of a Brazilian variant of the virus, which scientists say may be more contagious.

This variant has spread to South America, but Ryan explained that the current trend in the region "can essentially be attributed to non-compliance with basic rules of behavior."

"It is not the new variants that are causing this transmission. They may have an impact eventually (...) but it is too easy to blame only the new variant," the expert warned.

"It was also everything we didn't do that caused" this new wave, he added.