In the capital of Amazonas, Manaus – where the soaring death toll has forced authorities to dig mass graves – Deizeane Romão is mourning her husband, a 46-year-old nurse named Nicolares Curico who died on 14 April.
“Take care of our daughters. I love them,” he wrote in a message to his wife before being admitted to intensive care a week before his death.
Romão said her husband had also loved his profession: “It wasn’t about the money – his salary was less than 2,000 reais (£600) per month.”
But a lack of PPE and staff, because so many colleagues were falling ill, had left him overworked and exposed.
“He felt unprotected because he didn’t have an N95 mask,” Romão said. “He was seeing more than 100 patients a day.”
