Desperate search for oxygen in Myanmar as latest COVID wave hits

Desperate search for oxygen in Myanmar as latest COVID wave hits

YANGON: Residents across Myanmar's biggest city are defying a military curfew in a desperate search for oxygen to keep their loved ones breathing as a new coronavirus wave crashes over the coup-wracked country. The spike in cases is the latest blow to Myanmar, already suffering from a February coup and a bloody crackdown on dissent that has killed over 900 people and gutted the economy. Hundreds queued across Yangon as the sun rose Wednesday in the hope of refilling blue oxygen cylinders to take home to family members stricken with the virus.

Some had brought chairs and prepared for a long wait. For others, it was too late. "My sister was suffering from COVID-19 for three days," Than Zaw Win, told AFP as he left one of the queues in the city of some 7 million. "In the first day, she was dizzy with low (blood) pressure"¦ and she suffered a lot yesterday as she couldn't breathe well."

"But while I was queueing to fill oxygen this morning, my niece called me to go back home as my sister had died." Authorities logged over 7,000 new cases on Wednesday "” compared with fewer than 50 per day in early May. Millions in