Brazil reports its first coronavirus case among Amazon tribes

An indigenous woman in a village deep in the Amazon rainforest has contracted the novel coronavirus, the first case reported among Brazil’s more than 300 tribes, the Health Ministry’s indigenous health service Sesai said.

The 20-year-old woman from the Kokama tribe tested positive for the virus in the district of Santo Antonio do Içá, near the border with Colombia some 880 km (550 miles) up the Amazon river from the state capital Manaus, Sesai said in a statement.

Four cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the same district, including a Brazilian doctor who tested positive last week, raising fears that the epidemic could spread to remote and vulnerable indigenous communities with devastating effect.

Sesai said the woman was a medical worker who had been in contact with the doctor. She was the only person to test positive among 15 health workers and 12 patients tested after the doctor was found to have the virus, Sesai said.

Read more via France 24/AFP