Community workers use a speaker to publicize the information about prevention and control of the novel coronavirus at a street near the Yellow Crane Pavilion in Wuhan, Feb. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

More than 20 prisons officials in Central China's Hubei Province have received severe punishments after more than 300 COVID19 infection cases were confirmed in the province's prisons.

Both the Party secretary and the warden of Wuhan Women's Prison were removed from their positions and one prison official was put under investigation after 279 infections there were confirmed, according to a press release by the Political and Legal Affairs Committee under the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Tuesday.

Shayang Hanjin prison in Jingmen is screening suspected cases and implementing quarantine and treatment for infected people. A makeshift prison hospital is currently under urgent construction.

Chen Yixin, a deputy head of the central guiding group on Hubei, inspected the prison management authority on Monday, stressing the importance of understanding the difficulty and complexity of epidemic prevention and control work in prisons. 

He emphasized "wartime discipline", saying those who work with due diligence will be rewarded, dereliction of duty will be punished and "deserters" will be dismissed on the spot.

There were 323 confirmed COVID19 cases in prisons in Hubei as of Sunday, with 279 from the women's prison, 43 from Shayang Hanjin hospital and one from a reformatory for juvenile delinquents. 

No deaths have been reported, and the spread of the virus in prisons has been brought under control, said the press release.

A total of 508 new coronavirus infections, 61 new deaths were reported on Monday in the Chinese mainland. The total infection number soared to 77,658, with 2,663 deaths.

Hubei reported 499 new cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia on Monday, with 68 new deaths and 2,116 cases of recovery. The total number of infections in the province climbed to 64,786 with 18,854 recovered and 2,563 dead.

Global Times