Chinese city of Xian punishes officials for allowing virus to spread from quarantine hotel
- Disciplinary inspectors say those punished for their lax response include 10 officials who were blamed for allowing hotel staff to become infected
- The city of 13 million has gone into lockdown after cases with no clear transmission chain were detected
The city reported 49 new cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases to 255.
The outbreak spread after staff at the quarantine hotel became infected while disinfecting the rooms of passengers on a flight from Pakistan, but the authorities have been unable to establish a clear chain of transmission for some later cases.
The city imposed a lockdown on 13 million residents starting on Thursday, with one person from every household being allowed to go outside for grocery shopping once every two days.
Special arrangements have been made to allow students stranded in Xian or other cities to take postgraduate entrance exams between Saturday and Monday.
Police in the city said they had punished six people for violating epidemic control rules with penalties that range from a verbal warning to detention and criminal charges.
Wu Hao, a specialist in community epidemic prevention and control from the Capital Medical University, defended Xian’s decision to go into lockdown with fewer than 300 cases recorded, saying the number of cases was less important than a clear transmission chain.