September 24, 2020 - 18:47 AMT
Beijing "punishes" 1,100 officials over virus prevention measures

The city of Beijing has "punished" 1,112 officials and public servants for failing to carry out Covid-19 prevention and control measures, CNN reports.

“The city has taken strict measures to prevent and control the disease and has held Communist Party members and public officials who failed to fulfil their duties accountably,” read a statement from the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, the Chinese capital’s rubber-stamp legislature.

The statement did not contain details of the punishments meted out to officials.

After the wholesale food market outbreak in Beijing in June, a report from state media outlet CGTN stated that two local officials were "sacked and punished" for "failing in their duty in COVID-19 prevention and control work."

In Hubei province in May, "multiple officials" were removed from their posts for similar reasons, according to a report by the Hubei Daily, the official newspaper of the provincial Communist Party committee. Its capital, Wuhan, was the original epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

In May, Xia Guohua, deputy head of the Hubei Provincial Statistics Bureau, was removed from his post and issued with a serious warning, as well as having a serious demerit recorded against him for misconduct over distributing masks that didn't stand up to government regulations.

The latest statement from Beijing added that there have been 935 confirmed cases reported in the city since the pandemic began. A total of 926 cases have been cured and discharged, while 9 people have died, it said. All confirmed cases in the hospital have been cleared since August 25.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images