‘Rural surge’ propels India toward more Covid-19 infections than US

“农村病例激增”，将推动印度的新冠感染人数超过美国

MASLI: Sliding out of their rickshaw, masks on, fresh sanitizer smeared across their hands, a team of health workers approached one of the mud-walled homes in Masli, a remote village in northeast surrounded by miles of mountainous rainforest.

马斯里：一对卫生工作者从人力车上下来，戴着口罩，双手涂着消毒液，走近位于东北部偏远村庄马斯里的一泥土墙屋。这是东北部一个偏远村庄，周围环绕着数英里的热带雨林。

“Are you Amit Deb?” they asked a lean, shirtless man standing in his yard. Deb nodded cautiously. Five days earlier, he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Now his family members needed to be tested.

“你是阿米特·德布吗?”他们问站在自家院子里的一个瘦弱、赤膊的男人。德布谨慎地点了点头。五天前，他被检测出新冠病毒呈阳性。现在他的家人也需要接受检测。

They all refused.

但他们拒绝了。

“We can’t afford to quarantine,” explained Deb, a shopkeeper. If anyone else in his family was found positive, they would all be ordered to stay inside, which would mean even more weeks of not working, which would push the family closer to running out of food.

德布开了一家店，他解释说：“我们接受不了被隔离。”如果他家里的其他人被检测出呈阳性，他们都将强制居家隔离，这将意味着他们几个星期都不能工作，这个家庭将进一步面临离食物短缺。

The medical team moved on to the next house. But they kept meeting more refusals.

医疗队继续前往下一家。但他们不断遭遇拒绝。

The defiance of the coronavirus rules is being reflected across rural India, and it is propelling this nation’s virus caseload toward the No. 1 spot globally. Infections are rippling into every corner of this country of 1.3 billion people. The Indian news media is calling it “The Rural Surge.”

对新冠防控规定的藐视在印度农村地区得到反映，并推动该国的确诊病例数量升至全球首位。感染正在蔓延到这个拥有13亿人口的国家的每个角落。印度新闻媒体称之为“农村激增”。

In the megacities where the pandemic first hit, vigorous public awareness campaigns have left the populace mostly on guard. But when it comes to government efforts to contain the virus, rural India is resisting.

在疫情最严重的特大城市，公众意识宣传活动让大多数民众保持警惕。但当谈到政府遏制疫情的努力时，印度农村却在抵制。

In many villages, no one is wearing masks. There is no social distancing. People are refusing to get tested, and they are hiding their sick.

在许多村庄，没有人戴口罩，没有人保持社交距离。人们拒绝接受检测，隐瞒自己的病情。

Hospitals are straining; in the coronavirus ward of one hospital here in the state of Tripura, insects were left to crawl over corpses, according to photos from a former government official.

医院不堪重负;一名前政府官员发布的照片显示，在特里普拉州一家医院的新冠病房里，虫子在尸体上爬。

In recent trips to more than a dozen rural areas spread across several states, from Tamil Nadu in the south to West Bengal in the far east, to Tripura, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the north, the reaction to the pandemic appeared to be completely different from that of the big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

最近走访了几个邦的十几个农村地区，从南部的泰米尔纳德邦到东部的西孟加拉邦，再到北部的特里普拉邦、比哈尔邦和北方邦，对疫情的反应似乎与德里和孟买等大城市完全不同。

Out in the rural areas, many people behave as if there is no coronavirus. Even many police officers who have been empowered to enforce the pandemic rules are not wearing masks.

在农村地区，很多人的行为举止让人觉得好像不存在新冠病毒一样。甚至许多执行防疫规定的警察也没有戴口罩。

This intransigence has helped India catch up with the United States in terms of total infections. US cases are near 7.6 million, compared with India’s 6.8 million, according to a New York Times database. But India outpaces new US cases by 30,000 or so each day, putting it on a path to potentially surpass the United States in the coming weeks.

这种不配合的态度促使印度确诊总数接近美国。根据《纽约时报》的数据库，美国累计确诊近760万例，而印度为680万例。但印度每天的新增病例比美国多出3万左右，在未来几周有望超过美国。

Many people in villages believe their government is overstating the severity of the pandemic and showing no sensitivity to the economic hardship that they are suffering.

很多村民认为，政府夸大了疫情的严重性，对他们所遭受的经济困难无动于衷。

Government officials have tried to reassure them that they are containing the virus while striking the best possible balance between protecting lives and livelihoods.

印度官员们试图让他们安心，努力控制病毒，同时在保护生命和生计之间寻求最好的平衡。

Officials say India’s caseload is rising because nearly 1 million tests are being performed each day, five times the number a few months ago. They also point to India’s relatively low death rate, about an eighth or ninth of those of the United States, Spain, Brazil and Britain.

有关官员说，印度的病例正在增加，因为每天要进行将近100万例检查，这个数字是几个月前的5倍。他们还指出，印度的死亡率相对较低，只有美国、西班牙、巴西和英国的八分之一或九分之一。

Scientists say this is mainly because India’s population is younger and leaner, though they caution that most deaths in India, from any cause, are not investigated. And India’s deaths are steadily ticking up, by about 1,000 a day, now totaling about 105,000.

科学家说，这主要是因为印度的人口更年轻、更健康，尽管他们警告说，印度的大多数死亡，无论出于何种原因，都没有进行调查。而印度的死亡人数也在稳步上升，每天约1000人，现在总计约10.5万人。

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “spoken on all available platforms and underlined the need and importance of wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing,” said Manisha Verma, a spokesperson for India’s health ministry. The government’s focus, she said, has been on changing behavior rather than enforcement.

印度卫生部发言人玛尼沙·维尔马说，莫迪总理“在各种平台上发言，强调戴口罩和保持社交距离的必要性和重要性”。她说，政府的重点是改变行为，而不是执行。

In fact, even as the coronavirus spreads through the rural regions, other parts of India are loosening containment restrictions to help the stricken economy. This month, the central government is allowing movie theaters to open. Schools can soon reopen if state governments agree.

事实上，即使病毒在农村地区传播，印度的其他地区也在放宽限制，以恢复受创的经济。本月，中央政府允许电影院开放。如果邦政府同意，学校很快可以重新开放。

PM Modi locked down the country in March, with four hours’ notice, to buy time for India to scale up its production of masks and other protective equipment and to open treatment centers. But the severe lockdown spawned an exodus of millions of migrant laborers who could not afford to stay in urban areas. Their movement to rural communities helped spread the virus to nearly every corner of India.

今年3月，莫迪总理提前4个小时发布通知在全国实施封锁，为印度扩大口罩和其他防护设备的生产以及开放治疗中心争取时间。但严重的封锁导致数百万农民工大批离开，他们负担不起在城市生活的费用。他们回到农村，使得病毒传播到了印度的几乎每一个角落。

印度时报读者的评论：

译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/p/51027.html   译者：Jessica.Wu

Sunil The Thinker

I afraid to say but truth be told in future most probably India is gonna be hardest hit country by Covid-19 coz negligence of people can be seen in road where people aren't wearing masks and police officers are not taking harsh action against such people as they were doing before some months.

印度很可能成为疫情最严重的国家，在路上可以看到人们没有戴口罩，警察也没有像几个月前那样对这些人采取强制措施

Arya Ganguly

Send the covid warriors with ration and money to be given instantly to anyone's family found positive in rural areas.

让去检测的医务人员携带口粮和钱，发给确诊的农村居民

Ramesh Mathamsetti

Govt doesn't have any seriousness in implementing even simple Covid guidelines like wearing a mask. Even leaders are not following the guidelines. Politicians and Leaders are interested only in reviving economy. Rural infrastructure has always been neglected , leaving them poor, underdeveloped, and no infra to respond to this kind of disasters.

政府没有认真执行防疫规定，比如戴口罩。即使是领导者也没有遵循这些规定。政客和领导人只对振兴经济感兴趣。农村基础设施一直被忽视，导致他们贫穷、欠发达，没有基础设施来应对这类灾难。

Balhans Jayaswal

The poor but hardy will fight it out by taking the bull by the horn and develop resistance through through herd immunity. There will casualties no doubt, but eventually, they will win.

坚强的穷人会战胜困难，通过群体免疫来获得抵抗力，毫无疑问会有伤亡，但最终，他们会赢。

N R

India has four times more population than US.

印度的人口是美国的四倍啊。

CampaigningForTwentyTwentyfour

Dear people, there is just one tool that we have: masks. Don't question it. Use it.

亲们，我们只有一个工具：口罩。不要质疑，戴上口罩吧。

Abhijit mishra

almost 9 months have passed neither there is enough mask, medicine, sanitizers, pp kit, oxygen, bed, ventilators

将近9个月过去了，我们还是没有足够的口罩，药品，消毒液，检测试剂盒，氧气，病床，呼吸机

satya murthy

money spent by govt not reached needy ppl , gulped by lootera in betwn..

政府拨的款没到穷人手上，被吞了。

Sham Shastry

Corona pandemic has become more of big racket for all stake holders. Crores of rupees have been usurped by many NGOs under the guise of treating corona patients.

疫情已成为一种更大的骗局。许多非政府组织打着治疗新冠患者的幌子，侵吞了大量钱财。

HappyTimes User

This is the reality of rural Bharat.

这就是印度农村的现实。

pram

For ordinary Hindus, every day is a struggle. Living in slums, working whole day to get two meals a day and then following the stupid orders of their dumb, corrupt and useless orders is rubbing salt on their wounds. Who will give them food, who will pay their bills , If dumb lockdown orders are followed?  If they do not work a day, they do not get meals that day.

对于普通的印度人来说，每一天都是一场斗争。生活在贫民窟里，为了一天两顿饭而拼命工作，还要听从愚蠢的命令，这就像是在他们的伤口上撒盐。如果遵守的封锁命令，谁会给他们食物，谁会为他们买单?。他们一天不工作，那一天就没有饭吃。

Prateek Singh

I don't see majority of the people wearing masks anymore even in cities anymore. People are probably 'tired' so they neither wear masks/gloves nor maintain proper distance. By doing so they are putting vulnerable people at risk.

大多数人都不戴口罩了，即使是在城市里。人们可能“厌倦了”，所以他们既不戴口罩和手套，也不保持适当的距离。他们这样做是在把弱势群体置于危险之中。

Sajid Isa

A greater catastrophe is in the offing . An there seems no clear plan for the nation.

一场更大的灾难即将来临。这个国家似乎没有明确的计划。

Anil Dharan

Root Cause is because of unplanned Lockdown with short Notice done by Drama Queen Modi.

根本原因是莫迪突然实施封锁，毫无计划。

J Rey

Why do you (media) have to paint such a grim picture ... everytime you talk of Covid in India ?

Why don't you see that the number of daily cases almost all over in India have started GOING DOWN SINCE MID SEPTEMBER steadily .. INDICATING that INDIA might have PEAKED OUT IN SEPTEMBER ?!!!

每次说到印度的疫情，媒体为什么要描绘一幅可怕的画面？为什么你们没有看到，印度每天的新增病例数量从9月中旬开始稳步下降。这表明印度可能已经在9月份出现峰值了

Suresh Biswas

Rural Indians are more equipped than urban populations, they knows how to restrict this pandemic. Leave them their own , they are rich in ayurvedic medicines which is far better than allopathic, so for the God sake don't disturb their peaceful life and don't pollute their lifestyle by spitting human venom

印度农村人比城里人更知道如何控制疫情，随他们自己去吧，他们有阿育吠陀药物，这比对抗疗法好得多，所以看在神的份上，不要打扰他们平静的生活，不要干扰他们的生活方式。