Brazil reports first indigenous coronavirus case

The Vila Formosa cemetery in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the largest in Latin America had a 30 percent increase in the number of burials after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. (AFP)

• Indigenous peoples in the Amazon are particularly vulnerable to imported diseases
• ‘Indigenous health is a major concern’ during the coronavirus pandemic

SAO PAOLO: A woman from the Kokama ethnic group in the Amazon rainforest is the first indigenous person in Brazil to test positive for the new coronavirus, authorities said Wednesday.
The coronavirus pandemic has fueled fears about the possible impact for indigenous peoples in the Amazon, who are particularly vulnerable to imported diseases.
The 20-year-old woman works for the public health system in the municipality of Santo Antonio do Ica, near the Colombian-Brazilian border. She works with a doctor who tested positive for the virus last week after returning from vacation, authorities said.
She has no symptoms so far. She and her family have all gone into isolation and are under observation, according to Brazilian health ministry’s Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health.
“Indigenous health is a major concern” during the coronavirus pandemic, said Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta.
“We have to be triply careful in these communities, especially the most isolated ones.”
Indigenous tribes in the Americas have been historically isolated from many diseases against which much of the world has developed immunity.
It is estimated that diseases brought by European colonizers wiped out more than 95 percent of the indigenous population of the Americas.
Such groups remain vulnerable.
Mandetta said even today, when indigenous leaders return from trips overseas, they go into quarantine for two weeks to avoid bringing outside diseases back to their communities.
Twelve indigenous patients and 14 other people who worked with the infected doctor are awaiting coronavirus test results.