Manaus Mayor Concedes Collapse, Says City Has Only 2-3 Months’ Supply of Graves

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Recently sworn in, Mayor David Almeida yesterday accepted that Manaus, capital city of Brazil´s Amazonas state,  is experiencing a new collapse of its health system, amid an increase in cases and hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients. According to him, if mortality rates remain unchanged, the city will only have available graves for another “two or three months”.

“Manaus was the first city in Brazil to see its health system collapse and was also the first to come out of it. And we are collapsing again in this second wave of Covid-19 assistance,” Almeida said in an interview with CNN Brasil. “We still have some stock [of graves], possibly two or three months of burial spaces”.

The Mayor added that he plans to quickly create another 6,000 graves at Nossa Senhora Aparecida Cemetery, the largest in Manaus. The site is the same where victims of Covid-19 were buried in mass graves for lack of space at the peak of the first wave of infections in the city.

According to Almeida, the plan is to create a total of 22,000 new graves. “We are hiring in order to ensure that these families may have their loved ones buried with dignity,” he added.

The capital of Amazonas has confirmed 84,310 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, as well as 3,478 deaths, according to the latest data available on the Municipal Health Secretariat website. Of the 183 new hospitalizations for the disease registered in the state between Sunday and Monday, 177 occurred in Manaus.

Emergency situation

Faced with the rise in coronavirus cases, David Almeida decreed an emergency situation in Manaus for a period of 180 days. Published on Monday in the Municipal Gazette (DOM), Decree No. 5001 authorizes the temporary hiring of staff and services, as well as the purchase of goods and supplies needed to contain the spread of the pandemic, among other measures.

Another three decrees, also published on Monday, suspended authorization for events, banned the interruption of water supply and sewage treatment in case of lack of payment and established the reinstatement of home office (remote work) in the municipal administration.

“We are implementing all the required measures to contribute decisively to the fight against Covid-19, particularly at this time when the city is registering a rise in cases and, unfortunately, in deaths. We are concerned with the population in general, with crowds, with our servants and with the most needy”, said the Mayor.

State faces critical situation

Amazonas once again recorded an increase in the number of hospitalizations for Covid-19, driven mainly by the spread of the disease in the capital. The 183 hospitalizations notified on Monday are the highest rate since May, when the state saw 168 hospitalizations in a single day.

According to FVS (Health Monitoring Foundation) data on Amazonas, 91.84% of ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds in the state are occupied: 92.18% of adult beds in the public network, 50% of children’s beds and 94% in the private network. Ward beds have an occupancy rate of 86.45%.

Between Monday and Tuesday, the state confirmed a further 1,928 infections and 46 deaths, according to the latest report released by the federal Ministry of Health.