This is how the coronavirus is affecting indigenous people – and how tech is bringing them together

May 15, 2020

Vanderlecia Ortega dos Santos, 32, a nurse from the Witoto tribe, an indigenous ethnic group, who has volunteered to provide the only frontline care protecting her indigenous community of 700 families from the COVID-19 outbreak, wears a face mask that reads "Indigenous lives matter" as she poses for a photo outside, near her home in Parque das Trios, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in the Taruma district, Manaus, Brazil, May 3, 2020. "Our people are dying from this disease here and they are not being recognized as indigenous people by the state and Sesai," said Santos. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly SEARCH "CORONAVIRUS INDIGENOUS NURSE" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES.

Technology is supporting indigenous tribes during coronavirus, by sharing ideas and information. Image: REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

Sean Fleming

Senior Writer, Formative Content

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, president of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT), attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse - RC2CKE91LL5J

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, president of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad Image: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on COVID-19
See all

Here’s what to know about the new COVID-19 Pirola variant

Lora du Moulin and Charlotte Edmond

October 11, 2023

How the cost of living crisis affects young people around the world

Douglas Broom

August 8, 2023

From smallpox to COVID: the medical inventions that have seen off infectious diseases over the past century

Andrea Willige

May 11, 2023

COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. Here's what it means

Simon Nicholas Williams

May 9, 2023

New research shows the significant health harms of the pandemic

Philip Clarke, Jack Pollard and Mara Violato

April 17, 2023

Candida auris: What you need to know about the deadly fungus spreading through US hospitals

Rebecca A. Drummond

April 11, 2023