Almost 2,000 indigenous people infected with Covid-19 in Brazil, says NGO

According to an NGO, 1,800 indigenous people in Brazil have been infected with Covid-19, and 178 have died. The estimations, published by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, are higher than official figures released by the federal government: 1,312 infected people and 51 deaths among native communities.

Congresswoman Sonia Guajajara, a member of the Guajajara People, explains this discrepancy: “the federal government makes a selection of who they think is indigenous and who is not. They do not register those people living in urban environments,” said Ms. Guajajara, to news website G1.

Indigenous people are among the communities which are most vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic. A University of Campinas study estimated that around 81,000 members of native communities living in remote zones around Brazil could be “critically vulnerable” to the virus.

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