A female community worker (left) and her colleague learn about residents' situation in Caidian district of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, in Central China's Hubei Province, February 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

Party chief Zhang Aiguo and city mayor Sun Bing of Jingmen, Hubei Province, have been punished by the provincial Party discipline watchdog on Wednesday, after the city reported minus 107 cases to the daily update feed on confirmed cases of COVID-19 on February 19, showing an obvious numerical error.

Provincial Party discipline inspection and supervisory authorities, after concluding the investigation, found that Jingmen failed to accurately adopt outlined policies, implement responsibility, and strictly review reports leading to the error. This effectively undermined efforts to provide correct information to the public regarding the epidemic situation.  

Provincial Party discipline inspection and supervisory authorities decided to relieve the Party chief and city mayor of their duties and issued warnings to deputy mayor Liang Zaoyang who was the main leader in charge. 

The city health commission director Li Zhizhen and vice director Li Ai'e were also given warnings for misconduct.

The number of reduced cases were mixed with new confirmed COVID-19 infections leading to the abnormality on February 19, when the number of confirmed cases in Hubei Province was 349, whereas in Wuhan, a single city in Hubei, reported 615 new cases, more than the provincial total.