China Records Daily COVID-19 Infection Case Record This Year, 20 Officials Deemed Negligent Fired

Illustration of the activities of Chinese citizens amid a surge in new cases of COVID-19 infection. (Wikimedia Commons/Amakuha)

JAKARTA - China recorded the highest daily COVID-19 infections in 2021 in Friday's report, due to a surge in cases of locally transmitted infections. Several officials who were deemed negligent were fired.

The National Health Commission reported 124 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection on the mainland on Aug. 5, the highest so far this year, up from 85 the day before.

In its report, the National Health Commission revealed that of the new confirmed COVID-19 infections, 80 were locally transmitted, up from 62 local T-shirts the day before.

Local cases were boosted by a spike in infections in eastern Jiangsu Province, which reported 61 new cases for Aug. 5, up from 40 the day before. The new infections are mainly in Yangzhou City.

Overall, China reported 58 cases of the new asymptomatic coronavirus, which were not classified as confirmed infections, compared with 54 cases the day before.

In total as of today, mainland China has recorded 93,498 confirmed cases. While the cumulative death toll was unchanged at 4,636, no new deaths were reported.

Regarding local infections, the tourist city of Zhangjiajie in Central China's Hunan Province, which has become one of the latest hot spots for COVID-19 infection, fired 20 officials and public office holders for being slow in dealing with the epidemic outbreak.

Illustration of Chinese citizens' activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Wikimedia Commons/zhizhou deng)

The list includes district officials, hospital management staff, and personnel associated with local performances for tourists. The show for tourists has led to a massive spread of the virus to at least eight provinces and territories across China, citing the Aug. 4 Global Times.

About six officials from the city's Yongding district, where 15 confirmed cases were reported last Tuesday, were convicted, including the head of the district's public health department Xu Xionghui, who has been removed from office, China's state television CCTV reported.

Xu was judged to be incompetent in supervising the implementation of epidemic prevention and control work in the district, and lacked effective and timely management of isolating infected patients, according to the official announcement.

Meanwhile, Deng Huabin, director of the emergency department at Zhangjiajie People's Hospital, who was in charge of overall nucleic acid testing at the hospital, was also removed from his post, due to slack management that caused crowds of people to be chaotic at the testing site and pose a risk of cross-infection. seriously in the hospital.

To note, Zhangjiajie authorities ordered all residents and tourists not to leave the city and cooperate with epidemic control measures amid the latest outbreak. So far, patients linked to the Zhangjiajie outbreak have been reported in eight provinces and territories including Beijing.