當地時間16日，路透社報道稱，該媒體獲取了一封來自印度邦政府高階官員的信件，信中寫道：“被拋入印度恆河的屍體中有新冠死者的屍體”。
路透社在文章中稱，這是印度官方首次承認這一令人擔憂的情況存在，認為這種現象可能是出於貧窮以及村民對疾病的恐懼。
Bodies of COVID-19 victims have been found dumped in some Indian rivers, a state government said in a letter seen by Reuters, the first official acknowledgement of an alarming practice it said may stem from poverty and fear of the disease in villages.
路透社報道截圖
在這封信中，北方邦高階官員瑪諾吉·馬庫爾·辛哈寫道：“政府得到訊息，死於新冠病毒或其他疾病的患者的屍體被扔進河裡，沒有按照適當的儀式進行處置，結果，多地的河流中都出現了屍體。”
"The administration has information that bodies of those who have succumbed to COVID-19 or any other disease are being thrown into rivers instead of being disposed of as per proper rituals," a senior state official, Manoj Kumar Singh, said in a May 14 letter to district heads that was reviewed by Reuters.
"As a result, bodies have been recovered from rivers in many places."
辛哈認為，難以支付火葬費用、宗教信仰以及害怕感染可能是拋屍數量激增的原因。
In the memo, Singh said a lack of funds for materials such as firewood for cremation, religious beliefs in some communities, and families abandoning victims for fear of the disease were among the likely reasons for the surge in dumping.
這與此前印度《第一郵報》的報道結論不謀而合。
戳圖↓回顧詳情
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辛哈在信中要求各村莊確保屍體不被扔進河裡，並稱邦政府會給貧窮家庭5000盧比（約合人民幣440元）處理後事。邦政府還要求警察在河邊巡邏，制止拋屍行為。
He asked village-levelofficials to ensure no corpses were thrown into water and said the state government would pay poor families 5,000 rupees ($68) each to cremate or bury the bodies of the dead.
The state has also asked police to patrol rivers to stop the practice.
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辛哈對路透社稱，“這些屍體已經分解，所以我不確定在這種狀態下是否能找到有關新冠病毒陽性的資訊。”
"The bodies are decomposed, so Iam not sure in this state it can be found out about corona positive," he said in a text message.
路透社報道稱，儘管媒體早已將恆河上浮屍數量增加與新冠肺炎疫情聯絡起來，但這個擁有2.4億人口的北方邦，至今尚未公開披露（浮屍的）死亡原因。
Although media have linked therecent increase in the numbersof such bodies to the pandemic, the northern state ofUttar Pradesh, home to 240 million people, has until now not publicly revealed the cause of the deaths.
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北方邦人口甚至超過巴西、巴基斯坦，目前已遭受印度第二波新冠肺炎疫情的沉重打擊。衛生專家表示，在該邦大部分人口居住的村莊，許多病例都未被發現。
Uttar Pradesh, home to more people than Brazil or Pakistan, has been badly hit by India's dramatic second surge of COVID-19. Health experts say many cases are going undetected in the state's villages, home to the bulk of its people.
欄目主編：張武 文字編輯：董思韻 題圖來源：新華社 圖片編輯：雍凱
來源：作者：中國日報