Authorities in China investigate video of officials dumping rice and eggs during Covid-19 lockdown
- Viral video shot in northern city of Jiamusi sparked public anger and state media commentary about perceived abuse of power and food waste
- District epidemic control command centre says authorities launched a process to ‘hold relevant officials responsible’
The video, which was widely shared on Chinese social media over the weekend, showed a man cutting open a new bag of rice and breaking a bag of eggs before dumping them in a rubbish bin as a voice-over said “everything that comes from outside will be destroyed and all thrown away”.
The city of Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province reported five new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and 30 asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, according to the provincial health commission. A citywide lockdown began on September 18 after the first two infections in the outbreak were reported the previous day.
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The Jiao district epidemic control command centre said in a statement on Monday that the video was shot by staff at the Hongqi Street community who found some residents “did not follow the prevention and control requirements and forwarded rice and eggs privately”.
The staff deemed supplies from “the outside” as risking the spread of the virus, so they shot the video, the statement said.
It said staff directly involved in the incident had been “seriously criticised and educated” and authorities had launched a process to “hold relevant officials responsible”.
“We will learn from the past and seriously rectify the situation, especially to strengthen the training of professional epidemic prevention knowledge and skills for frontline epidemic prevention staff,” the statement said.