Some residents of Mexico City spent New Year’s Eve in lines that snaked down a street and around a corner, waiting to refill oxygen canisters for relatives suffering from Covid-19, AP reports.
The city of nine million has seen a surge in coronavirus infections and hospitals are 87% occupied, straining oxygen supplies.
That has resulted in long lines and price hikes that make it hard or impossible for some to refill tanks that, in some cases, last for only a few hours.
Blanca Nina Méndez Rojas was waiting in line Thursday to refill a tank for her brother, who was recently discharged from a public hospital after contracting Covid-19.
“We just left him disconnected [from oxygen], so he has to stay completely reclined so he won’t get agitated or have a problem, until we return with the tank,” Méndez Rojas said, noting “two weeks ago a refill cost 70 pesos ($3.50), and now it is 150 pesos ($7.50)”.
In a city where people are afraid to go to hospitals, and where those that will go have trouble finding a bed, it becomes a question of life and death.
Juan José Ledesma, a Mexico City retiree, got sick along with his wife and son. When his test came back positive on 16 December, he had to stay home — and consult a private doctor — because the local hospital had no room. Read from source….
