ロヒンギャ難民で初、新型コロナによる死者　バングラデシュ

【ダッカＡＦＰ＝時事】バングラデシュにあるイスラム系少数民族ロヒンギャ難民キャンプで、71歳の男性が新型コロナウイルス感染症により死亡した。当局が2日、発表した。同ウイルスにより亡くなったロヒンギャ難民は、この男性が初めてだという。（写真はバングラデシュ・ウキヤにあるクトゥパロン難民キャンプの市場に集まる、ロヒンギャ難民。資料写真）
　南東部コックスバザールの保健当局幹部は、「男性は５月３１日に亡くなったが、昨夜になって、新型コロナウイルス感染症により死亡したことが確認された」と述べた。
　男性は、クトゥパロンキャンプで生活していた。クトゥパロンはロヒンギャ難民向けのキャンプでは最大で、約６０万人が暮らしており、男性以外に少なくとも２８人が新型ウイルス検査で陽性反応を示している。
　ロヒンギャ難民キャンプには合わせて１００万人近くが収容されている。公衆衛生の専門家らは以前から、同キャンプで新型ウイルスが急速に拡散する恐れがあると警告してきた。
　コックスバザールの同保健当局幹部によると、男性は国境なき医師団が運営する隔離施設で死亡し、その日のうちにキャンプ内で埋葬されたという。
　「われわれはキャンプの管理者に報告し、今回の死亡例について人々に知らせ、警戒を呼び掛けていく」と述べるとともに、男性と接触した人の追跡を進めていると明かした。
　コックスバザールの人口は、ロヒンギャ難民を含め３４０万人。４月初めに新型コロナウイルスの感染者が複数報告されると、完全封鎖が実施された。
　キャンプで最初に感染者が報告されたのは先月半ばで、その後当局は、感染者の多くが報告されたキャンプがある複数の地区につながる道を封鎖した。
　先週には感染者数の増加を受け、難民約１万５０００人が隔離された。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/06/04-13:14）

A 71-year-old man has become the first Rohingya living in vast refugee camps in Bangladesh to die from the coronavirus, an official said Tuesday.
Health experts have long warned that the deadly virus could race through the vast network of settlements housing almost a million refugees in the country's southeast.
He died on May 31. But last night we got the confirmation that he died of COVID-19, said Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in the Cox's Bazar district.
The fatality was in Kutupalong, the largest of the camps, which is home to roughly 600,000 people.
The man was among at least 29 Rohingya to have tested positive for the virus in the camps.
Bhuiyan said the victim died in an isolation centre run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders and was buried in the camp the same day.
We are going to speak to administrators in the camp and alert people about the death, Bhuiyan said, adding they were trying to find people the deceased had been in contact with.
Mahbubur Rahman, head of the health department in Cox's Bazar district, told AFP officials were waiting for a full report on the death.
A UN spokesperson said they would comment later.
More than 740,000 Rohingya fled a brutal 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar to Cox's Bazar, where around 200,000 refugees were already living.
In early April authorities imposed a complete lockdown on the district -- home to 3.4 million people including the refugees -- after a number of infections were recorded.
The first cases in the camps were detected in mid-May.
Officials have since blocked roads leading to several areas of the camps where most of the infections have been recorded.
Last week about 15,000 refugees were placed in quarantine as the number of cases increased.
Bangladesh and UN authorities have prepared seven isolation centres with the capacity to treat more than 700 patients inside the camps.
Aid workers say many of the refugees know very little about the virus.
They blame this partly on local authorities cutting off access to the internet in September to combat what they said were drug traffickers and other criminals.
Bangladesh has also seen a sharp rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, with more than 60,000 cases and around 700 deaths.
Despite this the country lifted its coronavirus lockdown on Sunday, with millions heading back to work in densely populated cities and towns.