History indicates that Indigenous peoples in the Amazon region could be particularly severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, for example, their death rate was 4.5 times higher than in Brazil’s general population (G. La Ruche et al. Euro Surveill. 14, 51–56; 2009). Moreover, vaccination against H1N1 failed to protect an Indigenous community in 2016 (A. M. Cardoso et al. PloS ONE 14, e0218925; 2019). To track infection sources and safeguard these vulnerable people, we need data on COVID-19 to be disaggregated by ethnicity.

Information on strategies that Indigenous people have adopted against previous disease outbreaks is sparse. Some Indigenous leaders in Peru decided on 13 March to close their lands to people from outside their communities until COVID-19 is under control; two days later, the Peruvian president shut the country’s borders. These Indigenous social-governance systems should be respected and the communities kept informed of potential health-improvement measures.