Amazon region Covid-19 hotbed not only in Brazil

For at least four countries that form part of the Amazon basin, the number of Covid-19 cases is proportionally higher in rainforest areas. In Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia, the Amazon region is being especially affected by the novel coronavirus.

In Brazil, while the state of Amazonas is home to less than 2 percent of the country’s population, it is responsible for 7.55 percent for all Covid-19 cases. The Colombian Amazon, where only 0.16 percent of the country’s population lives, has 8.5 percent of all Covid-19 cases. The largest discrepancy, however, can be found in Bolivia — nearly 84 percent of the country’s Covid-19 are found in the Amazon region, with only 34.4 percent of the Bolivian population living there.

Last month, this live blog reported that Colombia closed its border with Brazil and Peru in order to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Amazon — which back then had 20 times more cases than the capital Bogotá. Despite the militarized border, the number of cases in the Colombian border town of Leticia continues to grow.

Indigenous communities

The situation in the Amazon is especially worrying due to the number of indigenous communities that live in the region. A University of Campinas (Unicamp) study published in April indicated that up to 80,000 indigenous people were “critically vulnerable” to Covid-19 infections. This week, this live blog showed that 2,000 indigenous people could have already contracted the virus.

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