Brazil neighbors limit travel to halt virus strain's spread

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s neighbors are starting to restrict international travel amid concern about the spread of a new coronavirus variant that experts say may be more contagious and driving a second wave of infections.

Guyana’s government closed its border with South America’s largest country on Friday, two days after Colombia halted passenger flights to and from Brazil; both nations cited the new variant as their reason. Argentina’s government decided to cut in half the number of flights to Brazil starting Feb. 1, according to a Jan. 27 report in state news agency Telam. And Peru on Jan. 26 banned air traffic from Brazil; the governor of Peru’s Loreto department bordering Brazil called on the government to shut down land crossings, too.

The clampdown comes as Manaus, the Amazon rainforest’s largest city and the site of the variant's outbreak, suffers a brutal second wave of infections. Overrun hospitals watched this month as their oxygen stocks were depleted, causing dozens of patients to die of asphyxiation. The government has scrambled to replenish supplies with an ad hoc plan, but the situation remains touch-and-go and family members of patients are still seeking cannisters of oxygen on their own, albeit fewer than earlier this month.

There has been speculation Manaus may be merely the first city devastated by this new strain. Other cities in Brazil’s Amazon region have been crushed since, including Porto Velho, capital of neighboring Rondonia state. Like Manaus, Porto Velho has begun airlifting patients to hospitals out of state. Brazil’s former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told newspaper O Globo on Thursday that the new strain could cause a “mega-epidemic” across Brazil within 60 days.

Alarm is growing, but the science has yet to catch up. Viruses are constantly...