China Punishes Dozens of Officials as Delta Outbreaks Spread
- More than 30 officials disciplined for mishandling the virus
- Variant’s persistent spread tests China’s Covid Zero strategy
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China has punished a slew of officials for failing to curb a Covid-19 outbreak that’s spawned nearly 900 symptomatic infections across the country in less than a month, a resurgence that complicates Beijing’s strategy of keeping the virus out entirely.
The eastern Chinese city of Yangzhou issued warnings to five officials for mishandling mass testing that they said allowed the virus to continue spreading. The city has overtaken nearby Nanjing, where the delta-driven outbreak first started, as the biggest hotspot in China with 308 confirmed cases reported as of Monday. Six patients are critically ill and if any were to die it would be China’s first Covid death in more than six months.