Amazonas state in northern Brazil on Thursday announced a curfew to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, as cases soar and hospitals run out of beds and oxygen supplies.

Authorities warned of a dire situation across the vast state. In its capital Manaus, the health system has been pushed to breaking point.

The city has “run out of oxygen and some health centers have become a type of suffocation chamber,” Jessem Orellana, from the Fiocruz-Amazonia scientific investigation institute, told AFP.

Amazonas governor Wilson Lima said the state was “in the most critical moment of the pandemic.”

The 7:00 pm to 6:00 am curfew will begin Friday.

According to official figures, Manaus recorded 198 deaths on Wednesday, the fourth day straight it had set a new record.

Oxygen is needed to treat COVID-19 patients suffering from respiratory complications.

Amazonas produces “significant quantities of oxygen, but now our people need oxygen and solidarity,” said Lima, who added some patients would be transferred to other states.

Military personnel delivered 400 oxygen cylinders to Amazonas over the last five days.

Brazil has recorded more than 205,000 deaths from COVID-19, second only to the United States.

The national average of deaths is 98 per 100,000 inhabitants but in Amazonas, the figure is 142, surpassed only by Rio de Janeiro (158) and Brasilia (145).

An expert studying coronavirus mutations in Amazonas told AFP a new strain detected in the state is “very probably” more contagious than the original virus, just like new strains found in Britain and South Africa.

Felipe Naveca said the variant, which the World Health Organization described as “worrying”, may have spread throughout Brazil and could already be the dominant strain in Amazonas.

The worsening situation in Manaus was not due only to one variant, he added, noting that authorities were expecting a rise in virus cases due to end-of-year parties.

“We need urgent support from the population to reduce the transmission and slow down the virus’s evolution,” Naveca said.

Experts worry new mutations could eventually show resistence to the vaccines developed to combat the original strain.

However, “right now there’s no evidence that this line prejudices the vaccine’s response,” Naveca said.

There is concern, though, the new variant could already have spread throughout Brazil and it has been detected as far afield as Japan.

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