Brazil's indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate from COVID-19: report

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Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/corona...port-1.4952085

Brazil's indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate from COVID-19: report
Shasta Darlington, Jose Brito, and Flora Charner
CNN
Published Saturday, May 23, 2020 9:09PM EDT Last Updated Saturday, May 23, 2020 9:10PM EDT

Far from hospitals and often lacking basic infrastructure, Brazil's indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate from Covid-19 with little help in sight.

The mortality rate is double that of the rest of Brazil's population, according to advocacy group Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) which tracks the number of cases and deaths among the country's 900,000 indigenous people.

APIB has recorded more than 980 officially confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 125 deaths, which suggests a mortality rate of 12.6 percent -- compared to the national rate of 6.4 percent...

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Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...serve-70919573

Indigenous leader calls for help in Brazil's biggest reserve
As the coronavirus spreads into Brazil's indigenous lands, killing at least 40 people so far by the government’s count, the first two COVID-19 deaths were registered this week in the Xingu area, which is one of the biggest reserves in the world
By YESICA FISCH and MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press
28 May 2020, 09:36

RIO DE JANEIRO -- As the coronavirus spreads into indigenous lands in Brazil, killing at least 40 people so far by the government's count, the first two COVID-19 deaths were registered this week in the Xingu area, one of the biggest reserves in the world.

The two fatalities were in the Kayapo indigenous group, which has reported a total of 22 virus cases. The community's leader, Megaron, told The Associated Press he wants President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials to stop loggers, miners and fishermen from illegally entering the territory, incursions he believes have sped up the spread of the virus.

Bolsonaro has encouraged development in the Amazon, regardless of indigenous lands, although the state-run indigenous agency, FUNAI, issued an order in mid-March barring access to those lands because of the virus. Still, reports in Brazilian media have said missionaries, health care agents, loggers and miners carried the virus into those areas.

“It is not us that are leaving and taking (the virus). There are people seizing this disease to invade indigenous land,” Megaron said.

He received questions from AP on May 13, but his team wasn’t able to get his response back until Wednesday due to their remote location in Xingu, which covers more than 2,600,000 hectares (more than 10,000 square miles) in the middle of Brazil. It is home to more than 5,500 indigenous people of 14 ethnic groups.

Megaron, who is a nephew of acclaimed environmentalist Raoni Metuktire, said his community now lives in fear because of the coronavirus...