コロナ封鎖で搬送遅れ３歳児死亡、中国当局が謝罪

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国北西部の都市蘭州で、一酸化炭素（ＣＯ）中毒を起こした３歳の男児が、新型コロナウイルスのロックダウン（都市封鎖）のため搬送が遅れ死亡したことを受けて、地元当局が謝罪した。中国でこのような問題をめぐり、当局が責任を認めるのはまれ。（写真は蘭州の検問所の様子。資料写真）
　蘭州では、１か月近く都市封鎖が続いている。現地警察は１日の発表で、男児の死亡を認めたが、医療機関への搬送に遅れがあったことには言及していなかった。
　男児の父親は２日、ソーシャルメディアに、検問所の担当者から自宅の敷地を離れる許可が下りず、救急車の到着も遅かったと投稿。１時間以上たった後、父親は自宅の敷地を出ることに成功し、タクシーで病院に向かった。しかし到着後間もなく、男児の死亡が確認された。
　地元保健当局は３日、ソーシャルメディアで今回の出来事の詳細な経緯を公表した上で、家族に対し「心からの哀悼の意」を表するとともに、「メディアとインターネットユーザーの批判と指摘を真摯（しんし）に受け止め、（過ちを）正していくことを誓う」と表明した。
　蘭州当局は、父親が何度も緊急通報したにもかかわらず、救急車を派遣するまで９０分以上かかったことや、住居の敷地の出口で職員と長時間押し問答になったことを認めた。「今回の事態により、緊急救助体制に問題があり、緊急対応能力が不足し、職員の対応に柔軟さが欠如していることが判明した」との声明を出した。
　男児の死を受けて、中国の「ゼロコロナ」政策にオンライン上で批判が殺到。「微博（ウェイボー）」では、「新型コロナの３年間の大流行が、この子の人生の全てだった」とのコメントが拡散した。ただし関連ハッシュタグの一つは、数百万回閲覧された後に検閲を受け、削除された。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/11/04-13:07）

Chinese local authorities apologised Thursday after a three-year-old boy died of carbon monoxide poisoning when medical care was delayed because of a Covid lockdown, in a rare admission of responsibility.
The northwestern city of Lanzhou has been locked down for nearly a month under China's harsh zero-Covid policy, which has seen millions of people across the country confined to their homes and often complaining of poor conditions, food shortages and slow emergency responses.
Local police had earlier confirmed the death of a child in a Tuesday statement but did not mention delays in accessing medical treatment.
The same day footage of people desperately administering the child CPR on a flatbed tricycle spread rapidly, along with videos of small neighbourhood protests that evening.
The boy's father, surnamed Tuo, wrote on social media Wednesday that he had been denied permission to leave his housing compound by workers stationed at a checkpoint, and that an ambulance did not arrive in time.
Over an hour later, he managed to break out of the compound and flag down a taxi to a hospital, shortly after which his son was pronounced dead, he said.
On Thursday district health authorities published a detailed account of the incident on social media and expressed their sincere condolences to the boy's relatives.
We sincerely accept criticism and supervision from the media and netizens, and are determined to rectify (mistakes), they wrote.
The Lanzhou authorities admitted it took over 90 minutes to dispatch an ambulance after the boy's father rang an emergency hotline multiple times, and they confirmed lengthy interactions with staff took place at the compound gate.
This incident exposed blockages in the emergency rescue mechanism, weakness in emergency response capabilities, and the inflexibility of cadres' work, their statement said.
- Outrage -
Authorities said Tuo had eventually managed to flag a taxi with help from a policeman at another checkpoint.
However, Tuo said he had been forced to break through a checkpoint barrier and that it was a passer-by who helped him flag the ride.
He also claimed he was asked to present a PCR test result by community staff, despite the entire housing compound having been under lockdown and not tested for the previous 10 days.
The tragedy triggered a storm of online criticism of China's zero-Covid policy, with one related hashtag censored on Weibo after gaining hundreds of millions of views.
Three years of the Covid pandemic have been his entire life, read one widely circulated comment.
Even though I didn't experience it, I feel like I can't breathe, wrote another user.
The incident is the latest in a series of health emergencies that have provoked outrage after they were exacerbated by zero-Covid policies.
Late last month censors scrubbed posts saying a 14-year-old girl had died in the central city of Ruzhou after falling ill in a quarantine facility and being denied prompt medical care.
In January, a pregnant woman in the city of Xi'an miscarried after being refused hospital entry for not having a PCR test result.