Covid-19 in Brazil

Since last week, the Brazilian Ministry of Health has repeatedly changed the format for publishing the current coronavirus figures, showing only the newly registered infections and fatalities of the last 24 hours – not the total numbers. On Sunday, June 7, the ministry even published two different figures, and data that illustrated the development over the past months was deleted. Following protests, the government announced plans to publish detailed data on the pandemic again. Today, the Johns Hopkins University reported that Brazil now has the highest number of cases worldwide, with more than 32,000 new infections.

"Regardless of the capital's policies, indigenous organizations are still keeping track of infection and death rates. The umbrella organization of Brazil's indigenous peoples, APIB, compiles data and publishes regular reports," stated Juliana Miyazaki, expert on indigenous peoples at the Society for Threatened Peoples. According to the report, 2600 indigenous people from 94 communities have so far been infected. The number of deaths among Brazil's indigenous peoples had risen to 247 by June 8. The mortality rate is approximately 9.5 percent – still almost twice as high as the national rate of just over 5 percent. The state authorities have so far only counted 85 deaths in the indigenous communities.  

"In order to prevent the pandemic from spreading to their communities, many indigenous communities have withdrawn into their territories and are now monitoring access at specially established checkpoints," Miyazaki explains. The FUNAI is against the checkpoints. "Nevertheless, people continue to enter the territories illegally to cut timber, to mine gold, to hunt, or to occupy land. Further, there are cases in which demarcations are disrespected in connection with illegal tourism or trade. Thus, despite all efforts, the virus continues to enter indigenous territories."

On Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets in over 20 cities to protest against Bolsonaro's fascist and racist politics. "The protests are joined by many indigenous people who live in the cities," Miyazaki stated. "For they have always been victims of institutional racism, discrimination, marginalization, and violence. Now, they are threatened by the pandemic and, in addition, the neglect of the government." FUNAI, the indigenous protection agency, which has meanwhile become absolutely loyal to Bolsonaro, has so far used only 30 percent of the funds available to fight the pandemic. The indigenous communities are to receive almost 3.8 million Euros in government support.