China punishes dozens of officials over Covid surge

WUHAN, THE FIRST EPICENTRE OF THE DISEASE, HAS COMPLETED MASS TESTING OF ITS POPULATION OF 11.3 MILLION PEOPLE

BEIJING: 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.

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-19 death in more than six months.

More than 30 officials nationwide, ranging from mayors and local health directors to the heads of hospitals and airports, have been punished for negligence and mishandling local outbreaks, according to the state-backed Global Times.

China is dealing with its broadest outbreak of Covid-19 since it crushed the virus that first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Wuhan has also seen infections take root again after the virus was brought under control there in early 2020. Fearing it could spread further and draw unwanted global attention, local health authorities tested the city’s 11.3 million residents this weekend.

They found nine locally transmitted coronavirus infections.

Fauci favours booster jabs for most vulnerable

Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious-disease expert, said Covid-19 vaccine booster shots should be given “reasonably soon” to people with weakened immune systems. “We would certainly be boosting those people before we boost the general population that’s been vaccinated, and we should be doing that reasonably soon,” Fauci told CNN.

Asked if other groups should get booster shots, Fauci said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is ready to give such recommendations “as soon as” they see clear evidence to do so from the data.

France on Monday began enforcing a Covid-19 pass in cafes, restaurants and trains, a tightening of rules the government hopes will boost vaccinations, but which has prompted weeks of angry protests.

Sri Lanka has begun mass cremations to clear a backlog of bodies from Covid-19 as cases surge across the island.