Ecuador’s Amazon tribes turn to tech to track Covid-19 cases

Indigenous groups across the Amazon say they have been largely left to fend for themselves, and that Covid-19 tests and health care services are not reaching their remote communities. — Amazon Frontlines/AFP

BOGOTA: Ecuador’s indigenous groups in the Amazon have launched an information dashboard to monitor the coronavirus and identify contagion hotspots as the disease spreads through the rainforest and threatens ancient cultures, a leading rights group said on July 21.

The dashboard, a collection of charts that aggregates coronavirus data, shows Covid-19 infection and death rates and suspected and recovered cases by area and tribe since early May, said The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE), which gathered the information.