Citizens queue up for nucleic acid test at a testing site in Futian District of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 9, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

The government of Omicron-hit Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province said Friday that they had dismissed eight officials in public security and health departments from their posts for dereliction of duty. Before the move, more than 60 officials were reportedly punished for dereliction of duty during recent nationwide outbreaks.  

The officials dismissed in Shenzhen include the deputy police chief and a deputy district head, after a local cluster infection of COVID-19 cases was found in Futian district, Shenzhen government announced, noting that the outbreak in Futian disclosed loopholes in local anti-epidemic work. 

A day before Shenzhen's announcement, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Jilin provincial commission for discipline inspection and supervision in northeastern China also announced that they had punished 16 officials for dereliction of duty in the latest outbreak, including dismissing the director of Changchun health committee.

Since the outbreak in Jilin in March, the local commission for discipline inspection and supervision had enhanced supervision over officials and strictly dealt with problems like lack of vigilance, bureaucratism and trying to hide, delay or lie in reporting infections, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in an article published on its website on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday chaired a leadership meeting on fighting COVID-19, in which he stressed science-based and accurate measures and the adherence to the dynamic zero-COVID policy to curb the spread of the epidemic.

The Jilin CPC discipline inspection commission held a meeting and studied Xi's speech, requiring local officials to enhance supervision to guarantee implementation of the central government major anti-epidemic measures, according to the Friday article of the central commission.  

Sporadic cases have started to emerge across China since February. As of Thursday, there are more than 16,000 confirmed domestically transmitted cases and nearly 13,000 local silent virus carriers in China, according to data the National Health Commission revealed Friday.

These outbreaks revealed loopholes in some places during normalized anti-epidemic work. At least 60 officials in government, schools, public security, and health departments have been punished as of Monday for dereliction of duty in the recent outbreaks in Northeast China's Jilin, Liaoning, South China's Guangdong, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and East China's Shandong provinces, media reported.   

Global Times