ひつぎ足りず段ボール箱で代用、新型コロナ死者急増のエクアドル

【キトＡＦＰ＝時事】太平洋に面した南米エクアドル第2の都市グアヤキルの市当局は5日、新型コロナウイルス感染による死者が急増し、ひつぎ不足のため段ボール箱を代用せざるを得ない状況にあると語った。（写真はエクアドル・グアヤキル市に寄付された段ボール製のひつぎ。グアヤキル市長室提供）
　市当局によると、地元業者から段ボール製のひつぎ１０００基の寄付を受け、市内の共同墓地２か所へ送ったという。
　葬儀場チェーンのオーナーで実業家のサンティアゴ・オリバレス氏は、ひつぎの需要の高まりに対応できていないと説明。市内に出された１日１５時間の外出禁止令により、ひつぎ製造に必要な木材や金属などの原材料が不足していると述べた。
　段ボール製のひつぎについてグアヤキル市長室は、「この緊急事態で亡くなった人々の尊厳ある埋葬に大いに役立つだろう」とのメッセージをツイッターに投稿した。
　グアヤキルは南米でも感染拡大の影響が最も大きい都市で、先週には路上に多数の遺体が放置されている様子を撮影した動画を地元住民がソーシャルメディア上に投稿し、物議を醸していた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/04/07-12:22）

Soaring numbers of COVID-19 deaths in Ecuador's second city Guayaquil have led to a shortage of coffins, forcing locals to resort to using cardboard boxes, city authorities said Sunday.
Authorities in the Pacific port city said they had received a donation of 1,000 pressed cardboard caskets from local producers, and delivered them for use in two local cemeteries.
It's so they can meet demand, a city hall spokesman told AFP. There are either no coffins in the city or they are extremely expensive.
Businessman Santiago Olivares, who owns a chain of funeral homes, said his company was unable to keep up with demand.
I sold the 40 that I had at the downtown branch, and 40 others from my headquarters. I had to order 10 more at the weekend and they've run out, Olivares told AFP.
The cheapest coffins currently cost around $400.
Olivares said a 15-hour curfew in the city was contributing to the shortage of basic raw materials for coffin makers like wood and metal.
Last week, residents posted videos on social media showing abandoned bodies in the streets in the Latin American city worst hit by the pandemic.
The government called in troops to pick up 150 corpses from streets and homes earlier this week after mortuary workers in the city were unable to keep up with a backlog of removals.
The cardboard coffins will be a great help in providing a dignified burial for people who died during this health emergency, the Guayaquil mayor's office wrote on Twitter.
Ecuador reported 3,646 cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, including 180 deaths, the majority of them occurring in Guayaquil and its surrounding province of Guayas.