APIB Alert # 01 Covid-19 and indigenous peoples
➖friday April 17, 2020
▪️To our indigenous relatives all over Brazil, the ‘APIB Alert’ is a daily follow-up on the Covid-19 pandemic in our lives as indigenous peoples.
▪️This virus is not just a “little flu” as President Bolsonaro is constantly trying to assert.
▪️We are facing a very serious scenario within our lives, and that is why APIB is striving for the construction of field hospitals exclusively for indigenous peoples.
▪️According to the Ministry of Health, the two indigenous people who died on Saturday (11) were contaminated by Coronavirus inside hospitals, in the Amazon.
▪️It is also urgent to acquire quick tests in order to promptly identify those infected, avoiding the spread of the virus within the communities.
▪️The death of a 15-year-old teenager of the Yanomami people in Roraima, on April 9th, should put us on high alert.
▪️He lived in a village situated near an illegal mining site, this reinforces our warnings about the need to expand the protection of our territories.
▪️To date, 23 indigenous people are among the suspected cases for Covid-19, and are awaiting for test results. 23 indigenous relatives tested positive for Covid-19 and five have died.
▪️From within APIB, we are receiving daily alerts from several territories concerning suspected cases that are not being tested and properly monitored.
▪️At the beginning of March, APIB provided proposals to establish an emergency plan to be conducted by the Federal Government.
▪️Last week, we forwarded a request, to all state governors, for 10 urgent measures that need to be taken.
▪️We are not only exposed to the virus, but also to the increase in invasions and crimes committed against our territories and against our lives.
▪️Given the logistical difficulties, the precariousness of the healthcare network and our epidemiological vulnerability, protection measures must be immediately adopted.
▪️We will keep demanding actions to be taken and denouncing any and all omissions from the Bolsonaro government, that could put our existence at risk.
▪️We, at APIB, sympathize and are in solidarity with the families that have lost their relatives to this new disease. We will continue without truce or retreat, in this struggle for life.