Chinese cities fight for mask shipments in scramble to stop coronavirus
- Authorities commandeer consignments as they pass through their jurisdictions
- Dali sacks health chief and apologises for using masks destined for Chongqing
The health chief of Dali in the southwestern province of Yunnan was sacked after the city commandeered about 600 boxes of masks destined for the megacity of Chongqing on their way through Dali from Vietnam, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday.
Apologising on its official microblog, the Dali municipal government said it seized the goods because there was no company in the city that could produce masks.
“We decided to hold the goods, which did not have complete paperwork, paid for all of them, and distributed them to our medical institutions, communities, police officers, security guards and so on,” the authority said.
“We will return the unused masks and compensate for the losses,” it said adding that it would review its processes.
In the autonomous region of Guangxi, in southern China, the county of Liucheng has reportedly abandoned its efforts to get its consignment of more than 140,000 masks after the order was seized on its way through the city of Mengzi.