A woman pulls her empty oxygen tank to the line of people waiting outside a shop that refills them in the Villa El Salvador shantytown of Lima, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP Photo/Martin Mejia)VILLA EL SALVADOR – In the middle of what was once a sandy desert, on the outskirts of Peru’s capital, a new routine has emerged for many of the residents of the densely populated city of Villa El Salvador.
“It is sad to see that not only I, all people, are waiting for oxygen for their family.”People are carrying empty oxygen tanks, bought in the black market, around town, hoping to find a place to fill them.
In Villa El Salvador, a group of 13 friends, among them engineers, economists and lawyers, pooled their savings to recently open an oxygen plant.
Parts of Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Brazil also have suffered periodic shortages of oxygen as COVID-19 peaked at various times in recent months.