By Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA, July 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Ecuadorian indigenous teams in the Amazon have introduced a data dashboard to monitor the coronavirus and identify hot spots for contagion as the disease spreads through the rainforest and threatens ancient crops, a leading human rights organization said Tuesday.
The dashboard, a collection of charts that aggregates coronavirus data, shows COVID-19 infection and death rates and suspected and recovered cases by area and tribe since early May, said The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE), which gathered the information.
About 250,000 indigenous people live in the Amazon region of Ecuador, where they face a major threat of coronavirus infection and death due to malnutrition and lack of blank water, physical fitness and COVID-19 tests.
According to data on the dashboard, COVID-19 cases among the 10 indigenous nations tracked have increased to 1,733 from 47 since May 15.
“Although this platform has significant and disturbing numbers, the number is a person, a mother, a father, a grandfather, or a grandmother. We have lost many elders: they are the guardians of our traditions, our ancestral knowledge, our languages,” he said. Marlon Vargas, head of CONFENIAE, in a statement.
“We are in a generation to help document how we are affected and we expect you to provide the resources we want to fight this virus,” he said.
Indigenous teams in the Amazon say that they have largely been left their own devices and that COVID-19 tests and fitness care are unsuccessful in their remote communities.
“The goal of this dashboard is to show the spread of COVID-19, identifying outbreak hotspots that can inform emergency response to priority areas,” said Carlos Mazabanda, a field coordinator at Amazon Watch, an indigenous rights group that worked with CONFENIAE and others to build and maintain the dashboard platform.
Ecuador has reported that about 4,500 showed cases of COVID-19, adding about 150 deaths among indigenous peoples, according to the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Earlier this week, PAHO urged governments in the region to “intensify efforts” to stop the spread of coronavirus among indigenous peoples, while countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico report an increase in the number of cases and deaths among tribal communities
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, most indigenous communities are isolating themselves and have blocked roads, bridges and trails to close off their reserves.
But as the coronavirus blockade in Ecuador has eased, oil corporations have restarted operations and brought personnel and appliances in and around indigenous reserves, expanding the threat of exposure, according to Amazon Watch.
Across Ecuador, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of nearly 5,500 people and infected about 76,000 others. (Reporting by Anastasia Moloney; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
There was an error, please provide a valid email address.
A welcome email is on its way. If you don’t see it please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Posted Newsletter will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.
365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4
© 2020 National Post, a department of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Dissemination, unauthorized transmission or strictly prohibited.
It uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads) and allows us to analyze our traffic. Learn more about cookies here. By proceeding to use our site, you agree to our terms of use and our privacy policy.