Prostitutes go on strike for a week to be counted among front-line workers receiving priority Covid-19 vaccines in Brazil
- Sex workers in the southeastern town of Belo Horizonte protested Monday
- Closing pandemic-related hotels has forced thousands to call for customers on the streets, they say
- They call on the government to recognize them as front-line workers, saying they are at increased risk of catching coronavirus
- The Government of Brazil has given priority to health workers, teachers, the elderly, indigenous peoples and people with health conditions underlying vaccines.
- Sex workers said they should be considered among health workers because they provide health information to clients and colleagues.
Sex workers in a Brazilian city went on strike for a week, demanding to be included in the group of front-line workers receiving priority coronavirus vaccines.
The closure of pandemic hotels in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte has forced thousands of prostitutes to seek customers on the streets, they say.
“We are in the front line, we are moving the economy and we are in danger,” Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes in the state of Mins Gerais, told AFP news agency.
“We need to get vaccinated.”
Sex workers in a Brazilian city went on strike for a week, demanding to be included in the group of front-line workers receiving the priority coronavirus vaccine. Pictured: Women have signs saying, “Please include sex workers as a priority vaccine group” and “Sex workers are a priority group”
The closure of pandemic hotels in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte has forced thousands of prostitutes to seek customers on the streets, they say. Pictured: Sex workers protesting in Belo Horizonte on Monday
Vieira and other women staged a protest Monday in a street full of closed hotels where they used to work, waving placards with messages such as “Sex workers are also health professionals” and “Sex workers are a priority group.”
“We are part of the priority group because we are dealing with different types of people and our lives are in danger,” said Lucimara Costa, one of the protesting sex workers.
“We are a priority group, we are health educators, peer educators. We are part of that group, because we provide information about STIs for men, we distribute condoms … ”, said Vieira.
The Brazilian government has given priority to health workers, teachers, the elderly, indigenous peoples and people with health conditions that underlie the first round of vaccinations. Pictured: A sex worker holds a poster that says, “Sex workers are also health professionals” during a protest
The Brazilian government has given priority to health workers, teachers, the elderly, indigenous peoples and people with health conditions that underlie the first round of vaccinations.
He hopes to vaccinate these priority groups, about 77 million people, in the first half of 2021, but experts say the process could pass in September due to lack of doses.
Like the rest of Brazil, the state of Minas Gerais has struggled with a second wave of pandemics, but the death toll per 100,000 population at 121 is among the lowest in the country.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused more than 332,000 lives in Brazil, a secondary tax only after the United States.
On Tuesday, Brazil registered 86,979 new cases. For the first time, more than 4,000 deaths were recorded in a single day, with 4,195 reported.