Amazonas governor’s house raided for irregularities in covid-19 contracts

The Federal Police raided this Wednesday the residence of the Governor of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, in the framework of an investigation of an alleged scheme to divert money in the construction of a field hospital due to the emergency of the coronavirus.

In this operation, the authorities are also looking for the regional health secretary, Marcellos Campelo, and five other people, who have arrest warrants related to the alleged fraud in the purchase of respirators for the field hospital in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazon.

According to the investigations, there are indications that officials of the regional Health Secretariat made fraudulent contracts to favor a group of local businessmen for the construction of a field hospital.

According to the authorities, the hospital does not meet the basic needs of assistance for people infected by the covid-19 and puts other patients and employees of the unit at risk of contamination, under the direction of the leadership of the State Government.

The state of Amazonas has been one of the worst hit in Brazil by the pandemic and at the beginning of this year its capital, Manaus, experienced the worst health collapse due to the lack of oxygen and care quotas in the Intensive Care Units.

Despite being one of the states with the lowest population density in Brazil, Amazonas accumulates almost 13,000 deaths and more than 387,000 infections due to covid.

With more than 465,000 victims, Brazil is the second country with the most deaths in the world by covid-19 after the United States, and the third most contagious, behind the United States and India, with some 16.6 million cases.