Anti-maskers being forced to dig graves for coronavirus victims as punishment

Authorities in Indonesia are turning more increasingly to shock tactics to hammer home the importance of abiding by the rules as coronavirus continues to surge across the Southeast Asian country

Ryan Merrifield

01:18, 16 SEP 2020

shock tactics  n. 震惊战术，耸动视听术（有意让人震惊，以说服他人做某事或做出某种反应的策略）

Hammer home 再三强调到彻底了解 hammer是锤子，动词就是捶打，延伸出来的意思就有严厉批评 hammer home很有画面感，锤到家

People refusing to wear face masks in Indonesia are being forced to dig graves for coronavirus victims as punishment, it has been reported.

Photos show eight alleged rule breakers preparing plots in a public cemetery in Ngabetan, East Java, with village chiefs struggling to contain rising case rates, reports The Jakarta Post.

cemetery n. /ˈsemətri/  （尤指不靠近教堂的）墓地，坟地，公墓

Java：爪哇岛     Ngabetan：地名

"Hopefully this can create a deterrent," said Suyono, a village leader.

He explained the anti-maskers helped to bump up the area's flagging number of gravediggers, which stands at just three.

deterrent  n./dɪˈterənt/  

~ (to sb/sth) a thing that makes sb less likely to do sth (= that deters them) 威慑因素；遏制力 • Hopefully his punishment will act as a deterrent to others. 对他的惩罚但愿能起到杀一儆百的作用。

• the country's nuclear deterrents 这个国家核武器的威慑力

bump up  V to raise or increase 抬高，增加

The flouters were paired up, with one digging a hole and the other placing wooden planks to lay the corpses - though Suyono said only health officials in PPE could handle the bodies.

Flouter：嘲笑之人、讽刺之人等，上次我们遇见flout，是trump flouts rules。

plank n.   /plæŋk/  

1.木板；板条•a plank of wood 一块木板条 •a wooden plank 一条木板

2.（政党等的）政策准则，政纲的核心 •The central plank of the bill was rural development. 这一法案的核心是农村发展

corpse  /kɔːps/  1. 尸体；（尤指人的）死尸，尸首 2.（使戏剧演员因忘记台词或止不住笑而）演出僵住

Anyone caught violating rules are already slapped with fines or community service, while the military is being used to disperse crowds.

But shock tactics are on the increase as authorities look to bring home the message about the pandemic which has already killed 8,965 in the Southeast Asian country.

It comes after police in Probolinggo, East Java, punished anti-maskers by forcing them to sit with a coffin in a hearse.

Probolinggo：爪哇岛一地名         hearse  n. /hɜːs/  灵车；柩车

While shopkeepers found guilty of breaching the rules have been forced to close for a week.

Last week, a photo of a woman kneeling over her doctor husband's coffin in Indonesia went viral.

Halik Malik, spokesman for the Indonesian Medical Association, said the limited amount of protective equipment, isolation rooms and low screening of patients, had led to a high fatality rate among doctors.

fatality rate：致死率

“The number of doctors dying in Indonesia is still relatively high, even increasing in the past two months,” he said.

The country is grappling with one of the worst outbreaks of the virus in the region.

Grapple  v. /ˈɡræpl/  

1. ~ (with sb/sth) to take a firm hold of sb/sth and struggle with them 扭打；搏斗 •Passers-by grappled with the man after the attack. 袭击之后过路人便与这男人扭打起来。 

2.~ (with sth) to try hard to find a solution to a problem 努力设法解决 •The new government has yet to grapple with the problem of air pollution. 新政府还需尽力解决空气污染问题。

In India, a country with more than three times the population and more than 3 million cases, almost 200 doctors have died from Covid-19, the Indian Medical Association told local media in early August.

Indonesia reported 3,141 new coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the total number of cases in the country to 221,523, data from the country's Covid-19 task force showed.

The data added 118 new deaths, with the country's fatality rate the highest in Southeast Asia.

原文链接：https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/anti-maskers-being-forced-dig-22689710