Covid-19: pandemic pressure hits officials in China as more punished over outbreaks

Name: Original Wuhan ‘ground zero’ hospital workers aid Shanghai in battle against Covid-19
Uploaded: 2022-04-08T12:30:16.000Z
Duration: 1 min 38 s
Description: Original Wuhan ‘ground zero’ hospital workers aid Shanghai in battle against Covid-19

Officials from Shanghai’s Pudong New Area accused of incompetence, failing to stop the outbreak spreading beyond Beicai and lack of accountability

Observers say the zero-tolerance mandate spurs some local officials to take drastic action for fear of punishment when case numbers rise

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The Chinese government has made clear that officials must take strict, rapid and decisive action in shutting down outbreaks, or they face dismissal or other disciplinary action. Photo: AFP

Mimi Lau

Published: 8:30pm, 8 Apr 2022

More official in Shanghai and Jilin province have been dismissed and reprimanded as the pandemic crisis deepens in eastern and northeastern regions of China.

Three grass-roots officials from Shanghai’s Pudong New Area have been sacked for failure to combat Covid-19 and contain the pandemic spread, according to an announcement of the Shanghai Communist Party’s discipline inspection commission on Friday.

Cai Yongqiang, party secretary of Beicai township, and Xu Jianjun, Beicai’s chief, were removed from their positions by Pudong New Area’s party committee after being accused of incompetence in stopping the outbreak spreading beyond the township.

Huang Wei, the deputy director of external affairs in Yangjing community, was sacked for a lack of accountability and poor supervision of pandemic control, according to the announcement.

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Original Wuhan ‘ground zero’ hospital workers aid Shanghai in battle against Covid-19

On Friday, the number of new symptomatic Covid-19 cases in Shanghai more than doubled to 824, on top of the 20,398 new infections with little or no symptoms over the previous 24 hours.