TABATINGA, Brazil (Reuters) – The Brazilian military sent medical teams and 1,000 doses of a Chinese vaccine to the depths of the Amazon rainforest on Tuesday 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 close to the border between Peru and Colombia.
“Vaccination is very important for our entire indigenous community. This is what we have been waiting for, ”she told Reuters after receiving an injection of the CoronaVac injection, developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Residents applauded when she received her injection, a collective show of relief for a community that saw 37 residents die of COVID-19 and about 2,000 infected.
“I was very concerned, but this D-Day has finally arrived after so many deaths here and in the world,” said Tarcis Marques Ticuna, the village doctor. “This is the hope for us.”
The more than 800,000 indigenous people in Brazil have been severely affected by the pandemic sweeping their villages, many of them located days away from the nearest medical post by boat.
The coronavirus killed 926 indigenous people in Brazil and infected more than 46,000, according to the tribal umbrella organization APIB.
Anthropologists warned that the community way of life, with families sharing homes, eliminated social distance and made them particularly vulnerable to contagion.
Brazil’s right-wing government is facing criticism for its slow response to the pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Brazilians.
Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto and Adriano Machado; Written by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien