Brazil has been battered by the pandemic, with the second-highest death toll in the world.
The Amazon has been hit particularly hard. Even in remote towns, people have been as likely to get sick as in New York City.
A New York Times photographer, Tyler Hicks, traveled the river for weeks, documenting how the virus spread.
The Amazon is the central artery in a network of tributaries that sustains 30 million people across eight countries, moving goods and industry deep into the forest.
Only a few cases had been confirmed in the state of Amazonas when April began.
But by July, the six Brazilian cities with the highest exposure rates to the virus were all on the Amazon River.
The first case in Manaus came from someone who had traveled from England.
The virus spread quickly along the river.
Many river cities have far more deaths per capita than the national average.
The Times tracked the spread of the virus from the region’s capital city to small villages with no doctors.
Tefé, several days’ journey by boat from Manaus, had one of the highest death rates in the country.
Many people assigned to care for the Indigenous have been infected, exposing remote communities to the virus. Health workers say they have been plagued by insufficient testing and protective gear.
After months of denying the seriousness of the pandemic and brushing aside protective measures, Mr. Bolsonaro felt symptoms of Covid-19. More than 65,000 Brazilians have died of the virus.
President Jair Bolsonaro hailed hydroxychloroquine as a godsend while he railed against quarantine measures and other best practices, undermining the country’s coronavirus response.
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