指示無視して説教続けたインドの導師、スーパースプレッダーに　１万５千人が隔離下

【ニューデリーＡＦＰ＝時事】インド北部で、新型コロナウイルスに感染したシーク教の指導者が死亡し、この指導者によってウイルスを感染させられた可能性のある少なくとも1万5000人が厳重な隔離下に置かれている。（写真は資料写真）
　多数のウイルス感染を招く患者「スーパースプレッダー」となったバルデブ・シン導師は、欧州における感染拡大の中心地となっているイタリア、およびドイツからインドに帰国後、パンジャブ州内の農村十数か所を巡り、説教を行った。
　この結果、同国で最も厳しいレベルの警戒態勢が敷かれることになり、インド政府が感染防止策として同国全土に課した２１日間の外出禁止令を上回る厳しい規制の下、各世帯に対して特別の食料配送が実施されている。
　シン導師が暮らしていた地区の治安判事は２７日にＡＦＰに対し、「まず農村１５か所の一部が１８日に封鎖された。封鎖対象となった農村の住民は１万５０００～２万人とみられる。医療チームが待機し、定期的に監視している」と語った。
　地元の警察関係者によると、シン導師との接触があった１９人は既に陽性反応を示し、さらに２００人超が検査結果を待っている。
　シン導師と近親者２人は欧州から帰国した後、自主隔離の指示を無視し、導師が発症して死亡するまで農村を巡って説教を行っていた。この近親者２人も、検査で陽性と判定された。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/30-13:12）

At least 15,000 people who may have caught the coronavirus from a 'super-spreader' guru are under strict quarantine in northern India after the Sikh religious leader died of COVID-19.
The 70-year-old guru, Baldev Singh, had returned from a trip to Europe's virus epicentre Italy and Germany when he went preaching in more than a dozen villages in Punjab state.
It has sparked one of India's most serious alerts related to the pandemic and special food deliveries are being made to each household under even tighter restrictions than the 21-day nationwide stay-at-home order imposed by the government.
The first of these 15 villages was sealed on March 18, and we think there are 15,000 to 20,000 people in the sealed villages, said Gaurav Jain, a senior magistrate for the district of Banga, where Singh lived.
There are medical teams on standby and regular monitoring, he told AFP on Friday.
Nineteen people who were in contact with the preacher have already tested positive for the new virus, said Vinay Bublani, a local deputy police commissioner.
Results are being awaited from more than 200 others.
The guru and his two associates -- who have also tested positive -- ignored self-isolation orders on their return from Europe, and were on their preaching tour until Singh fell ill and died.
The case has stunned India and a popular Punjabi singer based in Canada, Sidhu Moose Wala, released a song about Singh that has been viewed on YouTube more than 2.3 million times in less than two days.
I passed on the disease... roaming around the village like a shadow of death, say the lyrics to the song, which Punjab's police chief Dinkar Gupta has encouraged people to listen to as a warning.
With 873 confirmed coronavirus cases and 19 deaths, India's toll is lower than other countries afflicted by the pandemic, but experts say many infections have not been detected due to a lack of testing.
A similar alert has been declared in the town of Bhilwara in Rajasthan state after there were two deaths out of 19 virus cases.
No details have been given about the source of the cluster, but a one kilometer (0.6 mile) no-go area has been declared around a hospital being used to treat victims.