File Photo:VCG

 
Correctional officials and personnel linked to COVID-19 outbreaks involving more than 200 cases in Rencheng Prison, East China’s Shandong Province were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to two years for their negligence in the fight against the outbreak last year, according to verdicts issued by local courts on Monday. 

On February 21, 2020, more than 200 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported at Rencheng Prison. Later on the same day, a team led by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee visited the prison to look into the cluster infection.

The same month, hundreds of inmates and guards in Central China’s Hubei Province and East China’s Zhejiang Provinces also tested positive for the virus, raising concerns that prison environments were helping spread the disease.

Ex-deputy director of the Shandong provincial prison administration Wang Wenjie, together with the ex-Party chief and former head of Rencheng Prison Liu Baoshan and deputy head of the prison Deng Tihe were sentenced to one year, two years and three months, and one year respectively for failing to prevent the epidemic outbreak and negligence in the fight against the virus.

Dai Guanghui, a driver working for the prison, and Chen Minhua, an ex-officer with the facility, were also sentenced to one year each for their misconducts, including concealing their symptoms and travel history to Wuhan, Hubei Province, which the court believe caused the outbreak. 

Global Times