A first case of coronavirus in the indigenous Yanomami populations living in Brazil, a 15-year-old adolescent, was confirmed Wednesday by the Brazilian Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta. "Today we had a confirmed case among the Yanomami, which is of great concern to me , " said Mr. Mandetta at a press conference. The boy was admitted to the intensive care unit of the general hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state (north), he said.
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With this new case, at least seven Brazilian natives have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the newspaper O Globo . The first confirmed case was reported on April 1: a young woman of the Kokama ethnic group, aged 20, a health professional living in Santo Antonio do Iça, in the state of Amazonas (north).
The Yanomami, who number around 27,000 in Brazil, were decimated, like other ethnic groups in the 1970s, by diseases spread by European settlers and the arrival of unscrupulous gold prospectors.
Brazil has nearly 800,000 Amerindians from over 300 ethnic groups.