Coronavirus Reaches the Amazon as First Indigenous Woman in Brazil Tests Positive

THE Brazilian Amazon boasts of over 300 tribes deep within the rainforest, however the Health Ministry’s indigenous health service, SESAI, has reported that an indigenous woman in an Amazonian village has contracted the coronavirus.

The woman is 20 years old and part of the Kokama tribe, which lives near the border with Colombia at around 880km from the Amazon river in the district of Santo Antonio do Içá.

In this district there have already been four reported positive coronavirus cases, including a doctor who tested positive last week. This heightened anxieties as it proved the epidemic could even spread to isolated and vulnerable indigenous communities which will pose a devastating effect on their health and conservation.

The woman has not shown any symptoms of Covid-19 yet, however, she and her family have all been isolated to diminish the threat of spreading the virus, SESAI reported.

If the coronavirus spreads to Brazil’s indigenous population of 850,000, this could have lethal effects. Health experts warn that if any single member contracts the virus, their communal way of life with close proximity and under large structures increases the risk of contagion even more.