Covid-19 outbreak, hospitals in Myanmar 'thirsty' for oxygen

Khin Nwe Soe hopped in a taxi and ran from factory to factory in Myanmar's Yangon city to buy medical oxygen for her 21-year-old son. Tests at home showed her son had contracted the virus.Covid-19The son was in pain and could only lie in bed while his oxygen level dropped to 90%.

A man waits for oxygen outside a factory in Mandalay. Photo: Getty

Aye Myat Noe, who lives abroad, has also tried to contact oxygen manufacturers to help her mother.

“My mother also has health problems, both diabetes and heart problems. She is very worried about herself, but she still risked her life to find oxygen for my brother.”

Some factories promised to provide oxygen over the phone but refused to see Aye Myat Noe’s mother when she showed up in person. Others said they could not allow more people to line up outside their doors.

People have been queuing at oxygen plants across Yangon over the past week as the Covid-19 outbreak spreads across the country, with some even breaking curfews to line up from the crack of dawn.

Ye Kyaw Moe, a sailor, left his home at 3 a.m., half an hour before the curfew ended, to line up at an oxygen center in Yangon. But when he arrived, there were 14 others in line ahead of him.

“My sister contracted Covid-19 three days ago. The first day, she felt dizzy because her blood pressure dropped, and yesterday she felt weaker and had difficulty breathing. But when I was queuing to refill the oxygen tank this morning, my nephew called me to come home because my sister had passed away,” Than Zaw Win told AFP as he left a queue at an oxygen factory in Yangon to return home.

In a televised statement, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said that Myanmar has enough oxygen supplies and people should not panic or spread rumors about oxygen supplies.

The Covid-19 outbreak has come amid a difficult time for Myanmar. Following the February coup, hospitals in Myanmar have been in crisis, and testing and vaccination campaigns have been thrown into chaos.

On July 13, 4,047 cases were confirmed by the Myanmar Ministry of Health, bringing the total number of cases to 201,247. According to official figures, 5,014 people have died from the Covid-19 epidemic in this country so far.

Poor testing conditions mean that reported numbers are likely to be much lower than the actual number. According to the Irrawaddy news site, nearly 90% of Myanmar’s towns have recorded Covid-19 cases.

Joy Singhal, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Myanmar, said demand for oxygen and medical services had increased sharply across the country.

“With more transmissible variants circulating, we fear the current surge in Covid-19 cases is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Joy Singhal.

“There was no one there to do the test.”

Aye Myat Noe's family in Myanmar tried every way to get their younger brother with Covid-19 treated in hospital, and they were also told to go to public hospitals first for testing.

“There is no public hospital in our town. There is no one to test people who feel sick in the medical facilities here,” she said.

Unable to take her son to the hospital, Khin Nwe Soe’s family used partitions to divide the space in the house. She slept near the door, where there was the most ventilation.

By all means, Ms. Khin Nwe Soe finally bought an oxygen tank for 400,000 kyat (243 USD) - a price that many people cannot afford while this is the most sought-after item in Yangon.

When Khin Nwe Soe brought the oxygen tank home, her downstairs neighbor heard the news and rushed to find her. This neighbor’s mother also had Covid-19 and was in critical condition.

“They begged my mother to save their mother, begged my mother to leave the oxygen tank she risked her life to buy,” said Aye Myat Noe, Khin Nwe Soe’s daughter.

Before the coup in February 2021, Myanmar was one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to implement a Covid-19 vaccination program. However, to date, less than 4% of Myanmar's population has received a single dose of the vaccine.

Sandra Mon, a senior epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Human Rights in Baltimore, said the current Covid-19 outbreak is not only a crisis for Myanmar, but also a threat to global health security.

“Vaccine distribution is crucial in Myanmar at this time,” she said, stressing that health workers and the elderly need to be prioritized. Given the severity of the situation, Myanmar could administer a combination of vaccines from different manufacturers.

Aye Myat Noe’s family gave the oxygen tank to the mother of their downstairs neighbor. However, the neighbor’s mother only lived for 1.5 hours after using the oxygen tank.

Aye Myat Noe’s younger brother remains seriously ill and is constantly in and out of consciousness. Aye Myat Noe’s father also has Covid-19 but is still able to walk despite coughing and sweating profusely. Her mother, Khin Nwe Soe, is exhausted.

“The stress of living with two Covid-19 patients multiplied and fell on my mother’s shoulders,” Aye Myat Noe said./.