Government admits it lacks Covid-19 protection for indigenous groups

Member of the Pataxó nation. Photo: Celio Messias Silva/Shuttestock

Solicitor General José Levy, in a report to the Supreme Court, admitted that the federal government lacks sanitary barriers in eight indigenous territories needed to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in these villages.

The report also gives no further provisions to protect indigenous territories against trespassers, the number one cause for the introduction of the coronavirus to isolated groups. The federal government is constitutionally obligated to protect these communities from trespassers.

According to the Health Ministry, as of June 29, over 15,000 indigenous Brazilians have contracted Covid-19, with 276 deaths registered. However, the real numbers are almost certainly higher due to reporting issues in the ministry. The Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), estimates that 590 native people have died from the coronavirus, out of a total of 19,700 infections.

In June, The Brazilian Report covered how Covid-19 and the lack of protection to territories are accelerating the genocide of Brazil’s native populations.

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