In late April, Evaldo Fidelis, a 35-year-old tractor operator at Vale’s massive iron-ore mine in northern Brazil, came down with a dry cough.
Soon, he said, six others in his crew of about 40 workers fell ill with classic symptoms of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Fidelis, a labor organizer who tested positive for the virus 10 days later, is far from alone.
An isolated area in Brazil’s Para state centered around three Vale-owned iron-ore mines – S11D, Serra Norte and Serra Leste – is home to a coronavirus outbreak that has claimed 64 lives in the nearby town of Parauapebas alone, municipal data show.