Indigenous communities at risk of “genocide” with Covid-19 outbreak

One month since the first confirmed Covid-19 case in Brazil, the virus has spread all across the country. There are now reports of positive coronavirus tests in all 27 states, from the bustling Southeast all the way to the sparsely populated North.

With around 2,000 new cases in the last six days, the Covid-19 curve in Brazil resembles that of Spain, where the virus spread earlier and has now gotten well out of control, registering 4,858 deaths so far. However, there are specificities to Brazil that could make the situation here even more deadly: besides the densely populated favelas on the outskirts of major cities, there are also hundreds of indigenous lands, largely cut off from the rest of society and with precarious health infrastructure.

Sofia Mendonça, researcher and doctor at the Federal University of São Paulo told BBC Brasil that there is an incredible risk of...