Coronavirus pandemic reaches dozens of indigenous groups in Brazil, felling Chief Messias Kokama – Hospitals on brink of collapse as Bolsonaro does pushups with supporters
By Rob Picheta, Vasco Cotovio, and Shasta Darlington
18 May 2020
(CNN) – The health care system in Brazil’s largest city is wavering on the brink of collapse and coronavirus deaths throughout the South American nation are soaring — but President Jair Bolsonaro nonetheless reveled in crowds of supporters on Sunday, joining yet another anti-lockdown protest in Brasilia.
With Brazil still approaching its peak of cases, Sao Paulo’s mayor warned that the health system could be overwhelmed very soon if residents don’t follow social distancing guidelines.
“The city is coming to the limit of options,” Bruno Covas told journalists Sunday, warning that nine in ten intensive care beds were full. “We need to decide if we want to test the limits, or if we will be prudent and firmly maintain social isolation for the time needed so that the health system doesn’t collapse. We are closer than we would like.”
But there was a strikingly different message on display outside the President’s offices in Brasilia, where Bolsonaro appeared among crowds protesting the country’s lockdown measures on Sunday. [more]
Brazil coronavirus: Hospitals on brink of collapse as Bolsonaro does pushups with supporters
In Amazon city, indigenous chief felled by COVID-19 buried with dance and singing
By Bruno Kelly
14 May 2020
MANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) – He had asked them to sing and dance at his funeral, and that is how they said goodbye to Chief Messias Kokama on Thursday.
They sang the Brazilian national anthem in Tikuna, one of the 14 indigenous languages spoken in their ramshackle settlement on the outskirts of Manaus where 2,500 descendants of 35 different Amazon tribes live.
Chief Kokama, of the Kokama tribe, was 53 and died on Wednesday of respiratory collapse and other complications from COVID-19 after a week in the main hospital of Manaus, Brazil’s largest city in the Amazon rainforest.
“We lost a brave chief who fought to establish a model indigenous community with quality education and services that we are denied,” said Vanderlecia Ortega, an indigenous nurse who monitors her neighbors for coronavirus symptoms and had arranged an ambulance to take Kokama to hospital.
The soaring number of coronavirus cases has overwhelmed the hospitals in Manaus, and the dead are being buried in collective graves at funerals attended by no more than two relatives.
As the leader of the settlement called Parque das Tribos, municipal authorities made an exception to allow his community to gather to pay homage to Kokama after a wake. […]
“Thanks to Chief Kokama, we have a place here where we can maintain our culture, our sacred songs and dances, and make our manioc flour and our arts and crafts,” said nurse Vanda, as she is known in her community.
“We will continue fighting to make his dream come true.” [more]
In Amazon city, indigenous chief felled by COVID-19 buried with dance and singing
Brazil: Coronavirus pandemic reaches dozens of Indigenous groups
16 May 2020 (Al Jazeera) – The coronavirus pandemic has hit 38 Indigenous groups in Brazil, raising fears for populations that have a history of being decimated by outside diseases.
“The virus is reaching indigenous territories across Brazil with frightening speed,” the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples’ Association (APIB) said in a statement on Friday.
An APIB survey found 446 cases of the new coronavirus and 92 deaths among the affected groups, mainly in the Brazilian Amazon.
The grim news came a day after the Indigenous community of Parque das Tribos, outside the northern city of Manaus, held a funeral for its chief, Messias Kokama, who died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Kokama, who was 53, was buried in a closed coffin wrapped in plastic to avoid spreading the virus.
Brazil has registered nearly 15,000 deaths and 220,000 cases so far, though experts say under-testing means the real figures could be 15 times higher or more.
Meanwhile, rights group Survival International said the pandemic was also creating an opening for illegal miners and loggers to encroach on Indigenous lands.
“Countless tribal lands are being invaded, with the backing of a government which wants to completely destroy the country’s first peoples and makes no attempt to hide it,” said the group.
It criticised far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for his push to open protected Indigenous lands to farming and mining. […]
A quarantine, meanwhile, entered into force in Colombia’s Amazonas department of about 77,000 inhabitants, which has recorded 1,003 coronavirus infections.
That is the largest number per 100,000 inhabitants in all of Colombia. At least 30 people have died.
Infections in Amazon border areas in Colombia, Brazil and Peru could amount to more than 20,000, according to broadcaster Caracol. [more]
Brazil: Coronavirus pandemic reaches dozens of Indigenous groups
