FILE PHOTO: Lino Cavalcante Mota receives the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from a municipal health worker, along the Solimoes river banks, where Ribeirinhos (river dwellers) live, in Manacapuru, Amazonas state, Brazil, February 1, 2021. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
MANACAPURU, Brazil (Reuters) - Health workers sped along the Amazon river this week to start vaccinating riverside communities, bringing hope to a region hard hit by COVID-19 and now facing a lethal surge driven by a new Brazilian variant of coronavirus.
Wearing protective masks and gowns, they traveled by open motorboat from Manacapuru, a town two hours from the jungle city of Manaus, where hospitals ran out of beds and oxygen last month and cemeteries could not dig graves fast enough to deal with Brazil's highest death rate.
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