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| The body of Valnir Mendes da Silva, 62, lies on a sidewalk in the Arara slum where he died after experiencing difficulty breathing, during the coronavirus outbreak, in Benfica, North Zone, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by= REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes) |
[아시아뉴스통신=레악카나 기자] A Brazilian man named Valnir da Silva died on the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday (May 16). His body laid on the sidewalk for 30 hours, according to relatives and neighbours. They suspect the 62-year-old was an uncounted victim of the coronavirus outbreak.
On Saturday, when Silva complained that he could not breathe, the locals said they called an ambulance for him, but he died before it arrived. The ambulance arrived around 4pm on Saturday, locals said, but left without the body.
Paramedics put his cause of death as cardiac arrest and another unknown cause, according to the death certificate seen by Reuters.In a statement, the city ambulance service said it was not responsible for removing the corpse. They did not say whether Silva had been tested for COVID-19.
The next morning, Silva's stepson Marcos Vinicius Andrade da Silva, 26, tried to find another authority to pick up the body.
He said he spoke with police officers on patrol, who alerted colleagues at the 21st Civil Police station nearby but they only took charge of removing corpses in criminal cases. On Monday, da Silva was buried at a ceremony with four people, including Marcos and his mother, in attendance.
