TABATINGA, Brazil (Reuters) – The Brazilian military on Tuesday blew up medical personnel and 1,000 doses of a Chinese vaccine in the Amazon rainforest to begin inoculating indigenous people against the coronavirus.
Isabel Ticuna, 68, was the first to receive the vaccine in Umariaçu, a village of wooden houses on the banks of the Amazon River. The village is a remote community near the border of Peru and Colombia.
“Vaccination is so important for our entire indigenous community. It was what we were expecting, “he told Reuters after receiving an injection of the CoronaVac feature, developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Villagers applauded when he received the injection, a collective show of relief for a community that has seen 37 COVID-19 residents die and about 2,000 more infected.
“I was very worried, but this D day has finally arrived after so many deaths here and in the world,” said Tarcis Marques Ticuna, the village doctor. “That’s hope for us.”
Brazil’s more than 800,000 indigenous people have been severely affected by the pandemic that swept through their villages, many of them located just days from the nearest medical site by river boat.
The coronavirus has killed 926 indigenous people in Brazil and infected more than 46,000, according to the APIB tribal organization.
Anthropologists have warned that the community way of life, with families sharing housing, rules out social distancing and makes them particularly vulnerable to infection.
Brazil’s right-wing government is facing criticism for its slow response to the pandemic that has so far killed more than 210,000 Brazilians.
Report by Leonardo Benassatto and Adriano Machado; Written by Anthony Boadle; Edited by Rosalba O’Brien