Dozens of Chinese officials punished over latest wave of Covid-19 cases

Name: Beijing adopts ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ strategy amid surge in Omicron cases
Uploaded: 2022-03-22T03:00:23.000Z
Duration: 3 min 50 s
Description: Beijing adopts ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ strategy amid surge in Omicron cases

The country’s top leadership has indicated it will not tolerate failure, prompting some areas to adopt strict controls to curb its spread

China is currently battling its worst outbreak since the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan

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China’s top leaders have made it clear that local officials will be punished for failures in the fight against Covid. Photo: Xinhua

William Zheng

Published: 11:00am, 22 Mar 2022Updated: 10:34pm, 22 Mar 2022

More than 70 Chinese officials have been sacked or disciplined over the past month as Covid-19 spreads across the country.

The latest wave of Covid-19, driven by the more contagious Omicron virus, has resulted in more than 20,000 infections all over the country.

While health officials have acknowledged that most of the infections showed little or no symptoms making their detection difficult, top leaders have warned officials they face harsh punishment if they are caught slacking or fail to act swiftly.

This zero-tolerance stance has spurred some local officials to adopt drastic actions as they feared disciplinary punishment once cases began to increase, an observer said.

Investigations by the South China Morning Post have found that at least 74 officials have been sacked or reprimanded for failing to do their duty during the current wave.

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Beijing adopts ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ strategy amid surge in Omicron cases

These include 14 city and public security officials who were fired in the southern province of Guangdong, including the deputy police chiefs for the province and Shenzhen and Dongguan’s security chief.