Brazilian states in cut-throat competition over Covid-19 equipment

On the evening of April 14, a cargo plane filled with 107 ventilators and 200,000 masks from China touched down at São Luis airport, in the northeastern state of Maranhão. In order to evade blockades and having the material seized by Brazil’s federal government, the state administration originally had the equipment sent to Ethiopia, before bringing it to Maranhão.

Dubbed by the Maranhão state government as a “war operation,” the endeavor involved 30 people and BRL 6 million donated from the private sector and illustrated how hard it is for Brazilian states to procure vital equipment for their Covid-19 patients. In Maranhão’s case, two attempts to purchase materials were intercepted by higher-bidding Germans and North Americans, while another attempt to buy domestically-made ventilators was blocked by Brazil’s federal government, which requested them for national use. 

A report by Piauí magazine shows...