コロナ対策に魔術や魔法薬推奨のスリランカ保健相、検査で陽性

【コロンボＡＦＰ＝時事】スリランカ当局は23日、新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大を食い止めようと魔術や魔法薬を公に推奨していた同国の保健相がコロナ検査で陽性となり、自主隔離に入ると明らかにした。（写真はスリランカ・コロンボで新型コロナウイルスの検査を受けるために並ぶ住民ら）
　陽性と判明したのはパウィトゥラ・ワンニアラッチ保健・伝統医療相。ワンニアラッチ氏は魔術師が製造したという魔法薬を服用したと明言していたほか、はちみつとナツメグ入りだという同薬を公に推奨していた。
　またワンニアラッチ氏は昨年１１月、自称「聖人」の男から感染拡大を止める方法だと進言され、「聖水」を川に注いでいた。
　同氏が推奨した薬を飲んだ別の政府高官も、先に陽性が判明していた。 ＆＃１６０・
　スリランカの医師らは、この薬に科学的根拠はないとし、確立した新型コロナウイルス感染症の治療法はないと指摘している。
　しかしスリランカでは先月、神に新型ウイルス治療薬を示されたと主張する大工のダンミカ・バンダラさんが作ったコロナ薬を求め、約１万２０００人が集会禁止の規制を破り中部の小さな村に殺到した。
　スリランカでは新型コロナウイルスの感染が拡大しており、今週までに累計感染者はおよそ５万７０００人、死者は２７８人に上っている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/01/25-11:39）

Sri Lanka's health minister, who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to stop surging coronavirus infections in the island, has tested positive and will self-isolate, officials said Saturday.
Pavithra Wanniarachchi had publicly consumed and endorsed a magic potion, later revealed to contain honey and nutmeg, manufactured by a sorcerer who claimed it worked as a life-long inoculation against the virus.
She also poured a pot of blessed water into a river in November after a self-styled god-man told her that it would end the pandemic.
The island nation of 21 million on Friday approved the emergency use of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University only hours after Wanniarachchi tested positive, officials said.
Her antigen test returned positive on Friday and she has been asked to isolate herself, a health ministry official said.
All her immediate contacts have been quarantined.
A junior minister who had also taken the potion made popular by Wanniarachchi tested positive for the virus earlier this week.
Doctors in the island nation have said there is no scientific basis for the syrup, and there is no known cure for Covid-19.
But thousands defied public gathering restrictions to swamp a village in central Sri Lanka last month to obtain the elixir, made by carpenter Dhammika Bandara.
Family members of another politician, who hailed from Bandara's village, have also been infected after taking the syrup.
Pro-government media gave widespread publicity to the holy man, who claimed the formula was revealed to him by Kali, a Hindu goddess of death and destruction.
But the government has since scrambled to distance itself from Bandara, whose preparation was approved as a food supplement by the official indigenous medicine unit.
Sri Lanka is in the grip of a coronavirus surge, with the number of cases and deaths soaring from 3,300 and 13 in early October to nearly 57,000 infections and 278 dead this week.