• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Ecuador

Ecuador: Native Communities Vulnerable to COVID Outbreaks

  • Secoya community members in Ecuadorean Amazon, Ecuador. May, 2020.

    Secoya community members in Ecuadorean Amazon, Ecuador. May, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/@radiolacalle

Published 28 May 2020
Opinion

Siekopai-Secoya leaders stated in late April about one elderly death related to COVID symptoms and last week reported one of his relatives in intensive care due to similar signs.

Ecuador’s Ombudsman Office demanded on May 27 government health assistance and COVID testing kits for the Siekopai-Secoya native community.

RELATED: 

Ecuadoreans Take to the Streets to Protest Against Lenin Moreno

“The Ombudsman's Office calls on the national Government and, through it, the Ministry of Public Health, the national and cantonal EOC of the municipalities of Shushu ndi and Cuyabeno, to provide immediate and appropriate preventive medical care and treatment for the Siekopai-Secoya nationality,” the governmental body stated in official communication.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon reported on May 27 over 400 positive cases among Kichwa, Waorani, Achuar, Shiwiar, Shuar, and Siekopai native communities. 

The ombudsman representatives stressed government accountability for native communities’ protection and rights’ acknowledgment. Besides, it urged the Health Ministry to implement precautionary strategies to eliminate indigenous discrimination in sanitary assistance.

"Here, cases of Covid-19 have already been identified and Fundación Raíz has been able to act to prevent the spread and thus take care of the wise grandparents."
 

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (Redesca) alerted about native groups' vulnerability and possible extinction. Both organizations stressed Siekopai’s territories locate far from urban centers and hospitals. 

Siekopai-Secoya leaders stated in late April about one elderly death related to COVID symptoms and last week reported one of his relatives in intensive care due to similar signs.

Thus far, Ecuador registered 38,103 COVID positive cases, 3,275 deaths, and 18,425 recoveries from the virus.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.