Brazil Health Workers May Have Spread Coronavirus to Indigenous People (7-19-20)

Brazil Health Workers May Have Spread Coronavirus to Indigenous People

Manuela Andreoni, Ernesto Londoño and

For months, as the coronavirus tore through Brazil, the Kanamari had sought to shield themselves from the pandemic by strictly limiting access to their riverside villages in the secluded Javari Valley, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories.

But it seemed even there, the virus had reached them. Panic set in.

“Many people grabbed some clothes, a hammock and ran into the forest to hide,” said Thoda Kanamari, a leader of the union of Indigenous peoples in the vast territory, home to groups with little contact with the outside world. “But it was too late, everyone was already infected.”

Read the full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/world/americas/coronavirus-brazil-indigenous.html