脳性まひの少年死亡、父親隔離で世話受けられず　中国

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】新型コロナウイルスが流行する中国・湖北省で、脳性まひの少年が、父親が隔離されたために一人で自宅に取り残され、死亡した。（写真は資料写真）
　ヤン・チェンさんは、話す、歩く、食べることが自力では行えず、車いす生活を強いられていた。母親とは数年前に死別しており、父親のヤン・シャオウェンさんが発熱で隔離されると、食事をはじめ日常生活を手助けしてくれる人がいなくなった。
　先月２２日に隔離され、５日後に新型コロナウイルスに感染していると診断された父親は、チェンさんの世話をしに行ってほしいとソーシャルメディア上で必死の訴えを行ったが、間に合わなかった。
　地元紅安県は、チェンさんが先月２９日に亡くなったと発表。「ヤン・シャオウェンさんは、（隔離により）ヤン・チェンさんの世話ができなかった…そこで親戚、村の代表者や医師らに、チェンさんの世話を頼んでいた」と明かした。
　地元関係者らの話によると、チェンさんの死去により、地元の共産党書記と村長が辞任に追い込まれたという。
　ソーシャルメディア上には、湖北省当局が新型肺炎に関する情報を公表していなかったことに対する批判が出ていたが、チェンさんの死が報じられると、今度は怒りや悲しみの声があふれた。あるユーザーは「非常に怒りを感じるし悲しい。あまりにひどい」と嘆いた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/05-12:12）

A disabled boy has died after being left to fend for himself when his father was quarantined over the deadly new coronavirus in China's Hubei province.
Yan Cheng, who was confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, was abandoned at home when his father was isolated because of a fever.
The 17-year-old, who could not speak, walk or eat by himself, and whose mother died several years earlier, had no one to feed him or help him with daily life.
His father, Yan Xiaowen, was taken into quarantine on January 22, and diagnosed with the potentially deadly virus five days later.
He posted a desperate plea for help on social media, calling for someone to go and look after his son.
But the post, entitled An appeal for help from a father diagnosed with novel coronavirus, came too late.
The teenager died on January 29, according to a statement by the Hongan county government.
Yan Xiaowen was unable to take care of Yan Cheng's daily life (because of being in isolation)... so he entrusted his relatives, village cadres and village doctors to take care of Yan Cheng, the county government said.
The boy's death has cost senior local figures their jobs.
The local Communist Party secretary and mayor were fired because they had failed to fulfil their responsibilities, officials said.
The son's cause of death had yet to be confirmed, they said.
News of the tragedy sparked an outpouring of rage and grief on social media, where authorities in Hubei have already been criticised for withholding information about the infection.
On Weibo, the hashtag The father of Hubei's cerebral palsy victim speaks out had been read 270 million times by Tuesday morning.
A hashtag about the mayor being fired had been viewed 66 million times.
I'm so angry and sad, wrote one user. It's too disgusting.
More than 20,000 people in China have been infected by the coronavirus, with the death toll reaching 425.
The vast majority of infections and deaths have occurred in Hubei, where the virus is thought to have emerged late last year from a market selling wild animals and their meat.
More than two dozen countries have also reported infections, mostly people who had recently travelled to Hubei.