Far from hospitals and often lacking access to basic infrastructure, Brazil’s indigenous people are dying from COVID-19 at an alarming rate — and there’s little help in sight.
The mortality rate is double that of the rest of Brazil’s population, according to advocacy group Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), which tracks the number of cases and deaths among the country’s 900,000 indigenous people.
APIB has recorded more than 980 official cases of coronavirus and at least 125 deaths, which suggests a mortality rate of 12.6% — compared to the national rate of 6.4%.
While the Health Ministry’s Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health has reported only 695 cases of coronavirus in indigenous communities and 34 deaths, the group monitors a smaller group of people — only those living in traditional villages and registered at local health clinics, and not indigenous people who have moved to towns and cities.
Indigenous people who have moved to larger towns or urban areas to study or work can end up in precarious living conditions with few public services, increasing their vulnerability to health issues.
Meanwhile, those living in remote areas may not have basic sanitation and health facilities — a 15-year-old Yanomami boy from a remote village in the Amazon was one of the first indigenous Brazilians to die of COVID-19, in April.
Credit: CNN
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