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President's shocking 'beach' remark amid Covid oxygen failure

Yahoo News Staff
Updated ·3-min read

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said he “should be at the beach” as oxygen supplies run out amid the country’s continuous battle against coronavirus.

The air force has flown emergency oxygen supplies to the jungle state of Amazonas, which has been devastated by a resurgent pandemic.

Meanwhile the government scrambles to organise nationwide vaccinations.

Doctors in Amazonas were using their own vehicles to transport patients as locals sought to buy oxygen tanks on the black market, according to media reports.

Desperate relatives, protesting outside hospitals in the state capital of Manaus, said patients had been taken off ventilators as oxygen ran out.

President Jair Bolsonaro during the graduation ceremony of the new soldiers of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised for suggesting he should be at the beach during the Covid pandemic. Source: AAP, file

Authorities said oxygen supplies had run out at some hospitals and intensive care wards were so full that scores of patients were being flown to other states.

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Doctors reported sharing oxygen between patients, alternating every 10 minutes.

The air force flew cylinders with 9300 kilograms of oxygen in from Sao Paulo state, with another cargo expected on Friday (local time).

A government plan to start inoculating Brazilians against Covid-19 early next week was in disarray.

Mr Bolsonaro said a plane standing by since Friday to pick up two million doses of an AstraZeneca vaccine from India's Serum Institute would now depart in "two or three days".

Brazil's health ministry requested immediate delivery of six million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac and imported by Sao Paulo state's Butantan biomedical centre, saying it needed them for its planned launch of immunisations next week.

Funeral workers in protective gear prepare the grave of a woman who is suspected to have died of Covid-19 disease, at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery, in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil.
Funeral workers prepare a grave for a woman who died from Covid-19 at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery, in Manaus, Amazonas state which is currently running low on oxygen supplies. Source: AAP

President blasted over beach comments

Mr Bolsonaro, who has denied the gravity of Covid-19 and stated he would not be vaccinated, said in a television interview there was little he could do about the pandemic as a second wave of the new coronavirus tore through the country.

"I should be at the beach right now," he said on Band TV, adding his health minister was doing an "exceptional job".

On Twitter, people were less than impressed with Mr Bolsonaro’s comments.

“You are the most... irresponsible and incapable of world leaders,” one man tweeted.

People relax on Leme beach on a sunny day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
People at Leme beach in Rio de Janeiro during the pandemic. Source: AAP

Another man called Mr Bolsonaro’s comments “unbelievable”.

Many Brazilians are calling for the president’s impeachment.

An image of Mr Bolsonaro with the phrase, “How many deaths until impeachment?”, was recently projected onto the side of a building in Santa Cecilia neighbourhood in Sao Paulo.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who served jail time over corruption and money laundering, told CNN in June Mr Bolsanro had “committed many crimes of irresponsibility” and needed “to be punished”.

He called Mr Bolsonaro the worst president in Brazil’s history.

Mr Bolsonaro has already received 60 impeachment requests, according to Brazilian news site veja.com.

An image of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro with the phrase "How many deaths until impeachment" is projected on a building during a protest against his policies for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and Manaus' health crisis at Santa Cecilia neighbourhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A projected photo on a building in Sao Paulo calling for the president's impeachment. Source: Reuters

Brazil’s death toll surges

Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll after the United States.

The country is now dealing with a snowballing second wave and a new, potentially more contagious, coronavirus variant that originated in Amazonas and prompted Britain on Thursday to bar entry to Brazilians.

Brazil on Friday reported 69,198 new daily coronavirus cases and 1151 deaths from Covid-19, the fourth consecutive day with more than 1000 fatalities.

There were 3151 new cases and 113 deaths in Manaus.

Gravediggers of the Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, exhume old graves to open new spaces for those deceased by Covid-19, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Gravediggers of the Vila Formosa cemetery exhume old graves for people who have recently died from Covid-19. Source: AAP

with AAP

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