A medical worker takes a swab sample from a child for nucleic acid test at a residential area in Ejina Banner of Alxa League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Oct. 20, 2021.Photo: Xinhua

 
Authorities in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region removed Sun Jianjun, the Party chief of culture, tourism and television department of Alxa League, from his position , making him the fourth official to be sacked due to poor response to the latest COVID-19 flare-up.

The government of Alxa League said on Saturday that Sun was removed from his position of the Party chief of culture, tourism and television department of Alxa League as well as the head of cultural relics as he failed to timely implement anti-epidemic measures in accordance with requirements. 

Continuous COVID-19 infections are being reported in Inner Mongolia. As of Saturday, Inner Mongolia registered 155 locally-transmitted confirmed cases, with 132 from Alxa League's Ejin Banner. Alxa League's Ejin Banner registered the greatest number of COVID-19 cases in this round of epidemic flare-up. 

Epidemic relating to Alxa League's Ejin Banner was firstly found among members of a tour group who had travelled there, which later affected at least 14 provinces and cities. In the face of spiking infections, Inner Mongolia had suspended all cross-region tours in a circuit-breaking measures. 

The latest announcement of dereliction of duty came after three cases of dereliction of duty in epidemic prevention work were reported by the government of Alxa League, which administers Ejin Banner. Chen Zhanyun, Party chief of Ejin Banner, was among them. 

Ejin Banner is the first city to impose punishment on officials since the emergence of the latest COVID-19 flare-up. Ejin Banner earlier had also taken measures to punish six officials including local health commission's heads for their slack response and ineffective management since COVID-19 broke out on October 17.

Health authorities said the epidemic in the region is still in a fast developing phase. As epidemic in Ejin Banner has been spreading among communities, more cases are likely to be reported.

Although small-scale clusters of sporadic cases have occurred in some areas of China, China's top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan said on Saturday that he believes it will be effectively controlled within a month.

Zhong said it is expected that about 80 percent of Chinese will complete vaccination by the end of 2021. 

According to China's National Health Commission, the mainland reported 59 confirmed local cases on Friday. 

Among them, 26 were reported in northeast China's Heilongjiang's Heihe city. Due to a severe epidemic, health code of all residents in Heihe city will be turned to yellow. Health code is an important pass to travel around in the county. 

Beijing also reported two domestic cases, all of whom were reported in Changping district. Changping closed another 23 pharmacies after closing 44 pharmacies for their slack response on epidemic prevention and control. 

Global Times