Desperate Myanmar residents queue for oxygen as COVID-19 cases surge

FILE PHOTO: Commuters wearing protective masks ride a bus, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Yangon, Myanmar, December 7, 2020. REUTERS/Shwe Paw Mya Tin

(Reuters) - Myanmar's military authorities pledged on Monday to ramp up oxygen supplies to help treat COVID-19 patients, as residents described their struggle to secure supplies to save loved-ones from a record-setting wave of infections.

Photographs on social media showed long queues of residents in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon trying to refill oxygen cylinders.