China sends in top investigators after coronavirus erupts in jails
- More than 500 prisoners and guards in three provinces diagnosed with the illness
- Officials sacked in Shandong and Zhejiang for mismanagement
“With a heavy heart and sense of responsibility, I am reporting to you that as of February 20, five prisons in Hubei, Shandong and Zhejiang have reported infections among their populations,” He Ping, head of the ministry’s Bureau of Prison Administration, said in Beijing.
More than half of the cases were in the central Chinese province of Hubei, the epicentre of the epidemic, with 230 cases at Wuhan Women’s Prison and 41 cases at Shayang Hanjin Prison.
In the eastern province of Shandong, 207 cases – including seven among guards – were reported at Rencheng Prison in Jining, while another 34 cases were identified at Shilifen Prison in Zhejiang province, also in the country’s east. In addition, authorities found 10 suspected cases among prisoners in the three provinces, including some at a juvenile detention centre.
State news agency Xinhua reported that Lei Dongsheng, deputy secretary general of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, China’s top law enforcement agency, would lead a high-level team to investigate the outbreak at Rencheng Prison. The team will include officials from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice.