Officials are worried that Brazil’s mutant COVID-19 strain may cause an isolated and uncontacted Amazon tribe to be wiped out.
According to a report by The Sun, invading loggers, miners and land grabbers are spreading strains of COVID-19 to the tribes that live in the rainforest. These tribes have been isolated from the world, are indigenous, and don’t have a high level of immunity to diseases.
In one village, the virus has killed 10 children, and according to the Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon (APIB), death rates among the tribes are 58% higher than the general population, and infection rates are 68% higher than what they usually are.
APIB lawyer Eloy Terena told Sun Online said 114 recently contacted indigenous tribes are at risk of contracting the new and more infectious strain of COVID-19 that was first detected in Brazil.
Here’s what Terena said, “We have been living a very serious moment in our country. The current Brazilian government has implemented an indigenous policy that is extremely harmful to Indigenous peoples. These are cultures and languages. that we will never recover.”