Half of communities in Rondônia indigenous land have suspected Covid-19 cases

At least half of the 28 traditional communities in the Sete de Setembro protected indigenous land, in the northern Brazilian state of Rondônia, have registered suspected Covid-19 cases, according to leader Celso Lamitxab Suruí. As of Thursday, the number of confirmed cases in the area had reached 50. The region is home to around 1,800 people. According to the newspaper, there are confirmed cases in five different communities. 

As of the beginning of the week, newspaper Folha reports there have been 17,498 confirmed cases and 564 Covid-19 deaths among indigenous people of 123 groups in the Brazilian Amazon, citing figures from the Coordination of Brazilian Indigenous People (Coiab). The state of Amazonas has the highest death toll.

In March, editor Euan Marshall reported that Covid-19 posed a risk of wiping out many communities in the country. A study by the University of Campinas in April found that the number of indigenous people in remote areas around Brazil that could be “critically vulnerable” to the coronavirus is as high as 81,000.

But, as The Brazilian Report has also explained, coronavirus is not the only risk brought by the pandemic to indigenous communities in Latin America. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCRH) alerted that up to 5,000 indigenous people from several ethnic groups are currently displaced in Brazil.

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