Doctors in the Amazon rainforest’s biggest city are having to choose which Covid-19 patients can breathe amid dwindling oxygen stocks and an effort to airlift some of the infected to other states, AP reported.

Despairing patients in overloaded hospitals waited as oxygen arrived to save some, but came too late for others. At least one of the cemeteries of Manaus had mourners lining up to enter and bury their dead. Brazilian artists, soccer clubs and politicians used their platforms to cry for help.

The local government’s oxygen provider, multinational White Martins, said in a statement that it was considering diverting some of its supply from neighbouring Venezuela. It wasn’t immediately clear whether this would be sufficient to address the spiraling crisis.