A medical worker collects a swab sample at a nucleic acid testing site in Ejina Banner of Alxa League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Oct 2021.Photo:Xinhua

The Chinese city of Ejin Banner, which borders Mongolia, announced harsh punishment on six officials including local health commission's heads on Saturday for their slack response and ineffective management since the COVID-19 broke out on October 17. 

The city has sacked the director and the deputy director of the local health commission. Another health commission official, three police officers, together with local people's hospital and civil affairs bureau will be held accountable. 

Ejin Banner in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is the first city to impose punishment on officials since the emergence of the latest COVID-19 flare-up in multiple places, including the capital city Beijing, Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi and Jiayuguan in Northwest China's Gansu. 

An expert told the Global Times last week that a possibility could not be ruled out that loopholes in ports in Inner Mongolia may have had triggered the domestic outbreak. 

According to the regional health commission, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has reported 49 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 11 am Sunday, with 31 cases detected in Ejin Banner.

The latest COVID-19 resurgence, which has been spreading into 11 provinces within a week, was triggered by a new imported source, which was then diagnosed as the Delta variant, according to officials from China's top health authority on Sunday.  

Global Times

A medical worker collects a swab sample at a nucleic acid testing site in Ejina Banner of Alxa League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Oct 2021.Photo:Xinhua

The Chinese city of Ejin Banner, which borders Mongolia, announced harsh punishment on six officials including local health commission's heads on Saturday for their slack response and ineffective management since the COVID-19 broke out on October 17. 

The city has sacked the director and the deputy director of the local health commission. Another health commission official, three police officers, together with local people's hospital and civil affairs bureau will be held accountable. 

Ejin Banner in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is the first city to impose punishment on officials since the emergence of the latest COVID-19 flare-up in multiple places, including the capital city Beijing, Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi and Jiayuguan in Northwest China's Gansu. 

An expert told the Global Times last week that a possibility could not be ruled out that loopholes in ports in Inner Mongolia may have had triggered the domestic outbreak. 

According to the regional health commission, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has reported 49 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 11 am Sunday, with 31 cases detected in Ejin Banner.

The latest COVID-19 resurgence, which has been spreading into 11 provinces within a week, was triggered by a new imported source, which was then diagnosed as the Delta variant, according to officials from China's top health authority on Sunday.  

Global Times