CARACAS, Feb 7 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said that his country is ready to send a second shipment of oxygen to Brazil to ease the health emergency caused by COVID-19 in the Roraima and the Amazon states.
Workers at Venezuela’s Orinoco Steel Mill (Sidor), which has a powerful oxygen plant, suggested the government prepare an oxygen shipment similar to the one sent to the Brazilian city of Manaus last month.
“Thanks to Sidor, three heavy-duty trucks will transfer 86,000 liters of oxygen to the Amazon and the Roraima States,” the President said, stressing that the country wants to help Brazil to save lives, despite the two governments’ political differences.
Far-right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who scorned Venezuela’s solidarity gesture, is being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office for mishandling the health crisis in the Amazon region.
In Manaus, Amazon state, contagions soared due to the emergence of a new COVID-19 strain. The lack of oxygen and intensive care units (ICU) beds have forced the evacuation of over 500 patients from that city to other territories less affected by the pandemic.
According to the Amazon governor Wilson Lima, the crisis also reached the state’s cemeteries, which are saturated and lack of cold rooms to keep the corpses.
On Jan 18, Venezuela sent to Manaus six heavy-duty trucks loaded with 136,000 liters of oxygen destined for patients with severe disease symptoms in that city.
