Geneva, July 20 (RHC)-- Indigenous communities comprising half a million people around the world are especially vulnerable to the new coronavirus pandemic due to often poor living conditions, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.

Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that as of July 6th, there were more than 70,000 cases reported among indigenous peoples in the Americas, with over 2,000 deaths.

"We do not have to wait for a vaccine.  We have to save lives now," he told a virtual briefing from the UN agency's headquarters in Geneva.

Tedros urged nations to take all necessary health precautions, with special emphasis on contact tracing, to try and curb the virus' spread.