The area including the Xingu* and the Trans-Amazonian highway, in the state of Pará, is currently facing alarming rates of infection and death due to COVID-19, only comparable to those reached at the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and which, if ignored, could cause the health system to collapse. In Altamira, the biggest city in the region,  7,000 cases were confirmed as well as 145 deaths. Across the region, more than 300 deaths have been registered, and the numbers continue to risekeep rising.

According to the city’s Department of Healthcare, the incidence of cases in the Xingu area surpasses the average of Pará state as a whole, and is also above the national average. Altamira’s two hospitals provide health care for an estimated population of 354,000** people in the area, and only one of them can handle high complexity cases. The city also receives Indigenous and Riverine people from 11 Indigenous Lands and 7 Conservation Units.

To make matters worse, there is an increasing number of social gatherings taking place, the city’s stores are open, and the public authorities have been failing to prevent crowdings, in spite of the fact that social distancing is still the only way to contain the spread of the disease.  There is also false information on early treatments and remedies that can’t actually cure the disease. The vaccine, safe and effective, has already arrived in Xingu for some of the Indigenous people and for the health care workers who are fighting COVID-19. However, Brazil will only reach immunisation when the entire population is vaccinated. This is not expected to happen quickly.

Moreover, the region still hasn’t healed the wounds of the Belo Monte Dam’s construction, which left behind innumerable violations of the population’s human rights and environmental degradation. Altamira is one of the most violent cities in the country, and this has only been aggravated by the spread of COVID-19. We can’t allow the uncontrolled pandemic to open yet another wound.

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We will not stand idly by while the horror settles in. We must not follow the example of other cities where, unfortunately, people are dying from the lack of oxygen in the hospitals. We cannot suffocate in the heart of the Amazon. That is why we created the Respira Xingu (Breathe Xingu) campaign: to gather different voices, proposals and donations to fight for this cause. We urgently need to mobilize society and pressure the government to fulfil its constitutional duty of guaranteeing access to healthcare as well as to immediately comply with the protocols determined by the World Health Organization for this pandemic. Otherwise, it will be responsible and accountable for all the preventable deaths. Breathe Xingu!

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* Includes the cities of Altamira, Anapu, Brasil Novo, Medicilândia, Pacajá, Porto de Moz, Senador José Porfírio, Uruará e Vitória do Xingu.

** According to IBGE data, the nine cities situated in the Middle Xingu have 353,943 inhabitants. However, this figure does not consider the recent migration influxes that has increased the number of people living in this region.

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Organizations that sign this manifesto: