​In Peru​,​ Amazon's 'Forgotten' Tribes Learn About C​ovid-19 After Medical Team Arrives For Vaccination

Talking to Reuters, the leader of the tribe said that he did not know what COVID-19 meant until Health Department members came to vaccinate the tribal population last month.

A tribal man from Peru (Image for representation | Credit: Pixabay)

Chennai: Most of the people across the globe have almost learned to live with the coronavirus crisis and the pandemic. The people of all countries have started to get comfortable with the "new normal" by using masks, maintaining physical distance and getting the Covid-19 vaccine. However, are there still be a group of people in the world unaware of the pandemic? Yes. Not just in the imagination but a region in Peru is truly untouched by COVID-19. A remote "forgotten" tribal group in Peru of Amazon forest just learned about the term "coronavirus" last month. 

According to a report on Reuters, the leader of the tribal community in Peru's dense Amazon rainforest, Mariano Quisto, learned about the pandemic only when health workers reached the tribal hamlet in October 2021 to vaccinate the people. 

Talking to Reuters, he said that he did not know what COVID-19 meant and this was the first time he learned about the pandemic rocking the whole world.

In the Mangual village located in the Loreto region of northern parts of Peru, these tribal people still do not have electricity or any connection to the outside world. They rely on their hunting and fishing skills and reside in wooden stilt homes. 

All the members belong to Urarina, an indigenous tribal group, which just has 5,800 people left in the world, as per official death. However, the pandemic did affect some of the members living in places other than Mangual village of which five people died due to the impact of COVID-19, the report said.

Hence, in October, to cover the tribal population in the vaccination drive, government health workers and International Red Cross members in Quisto's Urarina visited the village after taking an arduous three-day-long boat journey, which is otherwise unreachable through road. 

However, many people in the indigenous community instead of the vaccination drive urged the government to provide doctors in order to get a continuous healthcare system.