Iran Press/ America: Now, with Brazil emerging as Latin America's Coronavirus epicenter, Amazon city of Manaus with more than 6,000 deaths, even the coffins are running out in Manaus.
The national funeral home association has pleaded for an urgent airlift of coffins from Sao Paulo, 2,700 kilometers away because Manaus has no paved roads connecting it to the rest of the country.
The city of about 2 million people carved from the jungle has been overwhelmed by death in part because it is the main site where those from remote Amazon communities can get medical services, according to Lourival Panhozzi, president of the Brazilian Association of Funeral Service Providers.
These photos show freshly dug graves, top, on April 1, 2020 at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, compared to one month later on April 30 with the graves filled in. /AP
As of April 30, Brazil's Health Ministry said that there were over 5,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Amazonas state and 425 deaths, although there are concerns that inadequate testing for the virus has meant that the numbers may be much higher.
Before the outbreak, the city of Manaus, the capital of the state, was recording an average of 20-35 deaths a day, according to the mayor. Now, it is recording at least 130 a day, data from the state's health secretary show.
People in the region also have been widely ignoring isolation measures.
Latin America's grimmest scenes occurred last month in Ecuador's city of Guayaquil, where residents said they had to leave bodies on the street after morgues, cemeteries, and funeral homes were overwhelmed.
Numbers label new niches at the Iraja cemetery in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, April 30, 2020. /AP
There also are signs in the much larger cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo that suggest authorities may not be able to handle a huge increase in the death toll. A field of fresh graves that was dismissed in April by President Jair Bolsonaro as excessive has since been filled.
Since the Coronavirus pandemic hit Brazil, Bolsonaro has likened the Coronavirus to 'little flu' and insists that sweeping state measures to close all but essential business are more damaging than the illness.
President Bolsonaro has been under criticism for his handling of the crisis, and now he is also under the Federal investigation into his alleged interference with police investigations for political gain. The charge could lead to impeachment.
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