英国卫报:西班牙小镇为何成疫情重灾区(4)

When Jorge Sanchez, the former town councillor, tested positive for Covid-19 on 10 March, he posted a video online telling everyone.

前镇议会议员豪尔赫·桑切斯在新冠肺炎检测呈阳性后，在网上发视频告诉大家这个消息。

It was, he said, a way of trying to wake the town up to what was happening, and of combating the stigma¹ associated with the disease.

他说，这是一种唤醒小镇，让大家意识到正在发生的事情的方式，也是一种与伴随着这种疾病的污名作斗争的方式。

“People were treating it as something shameful,” he said.

他还表示，“人们把它当做某件耻辱的事情。”

Santo Domingo lies on the famous pilgrim trail, the Camino de Santiago,

圣多明各坐落在著名的朝圣之路上，圣地亚哥大道，

which brings tens of thousands of international visitors through its cobbled streets and pebbled² squares each year.

它的鹅卵石街道和鹅卵石广场每年都吸引着成千上万的国际游客。

Close to the centre of town, a stone’s throw from the cathedral, is the town’s only care home, the Hospital del Santo.

在靠近城镇中心，离大教堂一箭之遥的地方就是镇上唯一的养老院，德尔桑托医院。

On 11 March, doctors, nurses and family members – equipped with masks but little else to protect them –

3月11日，医生、护士和家庭成员在戴着口罩，但是没什么其他保护措施，

bustled³ around one of the home’s ailing⁴ residents, 85-year-old Rosa Andres Rodrigo, in the hours before she died.

他们忙碌在该养老院的病人之一、85岁的的罗莎·安德烈斯·罗德里戈周围，几小时后她就离开了人世。

She showed what we now see as classic Covid symptoms – a fever and shortness of breath – but which could also come from a winter flu.

她表现出了我们现在看到的典型的新冠肺炎症状——发烧和呼吸短促——但这也可能来自冬季流感。

She died so quickly that there wasn’t time to find out.

她走得太快了，没有时间去弄清楚。

“At that stage, we still didn’t know,” the care home manager, Sagrario Loza, told me, “I myself was in there with just a mask on.”

养老院经理萨格拉里奥·洛扎告诉我，“她都到了那个阶段，我们还不知道。我自己进过那里几次，都是只戴着一个口罩。”

Within a week, many of those who had tended to Rosa had contracted the coronavirus, including the care home’s main doctor.

在一周之内，很多照料过罗莎的人都感染了新冠病毒，包括该养老院的主治医生。

“She was so weak she couldn’t get out of bed,” Cristina Diaz, a pharmacist from a nearby village, who took meals to the doctor’s house, told me.

附近村庄的药剂师克里斯蒂娜·迪亚兹给医生送饭，她告诉我，“她太虚弱了，下不了床。”

Like many care home workers, the doctor was on a short-term contract and low pay.

像许多养老院的工人一样，这位医生签的是短期合同，工资很低。

(Take-home pay for Spanish care home doctors is around 1,600 Euro per month, and just 1,400 Euro for nurses.)

(西班牙养老院医生每月的实得工资约为1600欧元，护士仅为1400欧元。)

When the doctor finally got better, her contract had already ended, so she took a job elsewhere.

当医生的病情终于好转时，她的合同已经到期，所以她在别处找了份工作。

Soon almost half of the care home staff were ill as well.

很快，几乎一半的护理院员工也病倒了。

On 14 March, when Sanchez imposed a nationwide lockdown, he held up the country’s elderly as a reason for acting⁵,

3月14日，当桑切斯在全国范围内实施禁闭时，他将老年人作为采取行动的理由，

reminding Spaniards that it was the pension money of parents and grandparents that had prevented many families falling into destitution⁶ during the 2008 financial crisis.

提醒西班牙人，正是父母和祖父母的养老金，才使许多家庭在2008年金融危机期间免于陷入贫困。

“In this crisis, they are the ones who need to be helped,” he said.

“在这场危机中，他们是需要帮助的人，”他说。

1 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

2 pebbled   

用卵石铺（pebble的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• And quick to the white-pebbled bottom it fell! 接着它飞快地回落到白色卵石的井底潺潺！
• Outside, the rain had stopped but the glass was still pebbled with bright drops. 窗外的雨已经停了，但玻璃上还是布满明亮的水珠。

3 bustled   

闹哄哄地忙乱，奔忙( bustle的过去式和过去分词 )； 催促

参考例句：

• She bustled around in the kitchen. 她在厨房里忙得团团转。
• The hostress bustled about with an assumption of authority. 女主人摆出一副权威的样子忙来忙去。

4 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 destitution   

n.穷困，缺乏，贫穷

参考例句：

• The people lived in destitution. 民生凋敝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His drinking led him to a life of destitution. 酗酒导致他生活贫穷。 来自辞典例句