1st coronavirus case detected in Ecuador Amazon tribe

QUITO, Ecuador – The first case of the novel coronavirus has been detected in one of Ecuador’s indigenous Amazon tribes, the health ministry said Sunday, May 17.

Waorani organizations – speaking through the GO Alliance for Human Rights in Ecuador (DDHH) – warned COVID-19’s spread could be “catastrophic and highly lethal” for their community, which is vulnerable to diseases. 

The first case reported in the Waorani tribe is a “pregnant woman, 17 years old, who began to show symptoms on May 4,” the ministry said in a statement.

She was taken to a hospital in the capital Quito and placed in isolation, the statement said, without giving further details.

The federal government – in coordination with indigenous leaders – checked on 40 people that the woman had come into contact within the Miwaguno community, which has 140 inhabitants. (READ: Boy from isolated Amazon tribe dies after being infected with coronavirus)

“Seventeen citizens with a history of respiratory systems were found. To date, 6 of them have symptoms, so 20 rapid tests and a total of 7 nasopharyngeal swabs were performed,” the health ministry said, without releasing the test results.

Ecuador, one of the hardest-hit countries in Latin America, is now in its second month of lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (READ: Torment in Ecuador: virus dead piled up in bathrooms)

It has reported some 33,000 cases and more than 2,700 deaths. – Rappler.com