Photo:Xinhua

A total of eight officials in Yucheng county, Central China's Henan Province, have been punished for slack COVID-19 response that resulted in four new confirmed cases, Shangqiu government that administers the county announced on Monday. Five of the eight, including the vice head of the county and director of the local health commission, were removed from their posts. 

Chen Fulei, a deputy commander-in-chief of the epidemic prevention and control work and vice head of the county, will be dismissed from office for poor performance in the overall coordination and management of the local anti-epidemic measures, read the statement issued by the Shangqiu city government. 

The head of the county's health commission, Xu Zhiqiang, was given the same punishment for his slack epidemic response, which left Shangqiu in passivity in the face of the ravaging epidemic surge. 

Three others were also removed from their posts, and the rest were seriously warned, read the statement. 

Amid the surge of the Delta variant in half of the 31 Chinese mainland provincial-level regions, Yucheng county is suspected of covering up the local epidemic situation which resulted in four new confirmed COVID-19 cases. 

According to Shangqiu government, one of the four new cases confirmed on Friday had a close unprotected contact with a previously confirmed case. The new confirmed cases were due to poor performance by the Yucheng county in its COVID-19 response. The county is suspected of covering up the local epidemic. 

Following the new cases, the Shangqiu government announced a third round of citywide nucleic acid testing on Saturday. 

From 8 am Saturday, all private clinics in Shangqiu were ordered to close for patients, and they were not allowed to sell drugs either. Their reopening will be decided by the local epidemic situation. 

Two regions in Shangqiu city including one local hospital were declared as high risk zones on Saturday, and related regions will be subjected to enclosed management.  

Global Times