China’s Communist Party sacks official as COVID-19 cases rose at Myanmar border city

Gong Yunzun, party chief of Ruili, has been dismissed from his post for serious negligence in epidemic control in the city, where 76 cases and 25 asymptomatic patients emerged as of Thursday, state-run Global Times reported.

The decision to sack Gong was made by the provincial discipline inspection authorities after an investigation, the report said.

Gong, 46, took the main leadership responsibility for the outbreaks in Ruili, which occurred three times in succession over more than half a year, especially the recent flareups since March 29, severely damaging the overall situation of national and provincial epidemic prevention and control work, the report said.

The China-Myanmar border city was put under the spotlight after new COVID-19 cases were found on March 29, six months after a wave of cases hit the city in September 2020.

With a population of 300,000, Ruili has launched two rounds of citywide nucleic acid testing, with the most recent one conducted on Tuesday.

It also rolled out a mass vaccination drive across the city on Friday, which was temporarily suspended on Tuesday due to the mass testing.

Meanwhile, China’s National Health Commission said that as of Wednesday, the total number of cases in the Chinese mainland was 90,365, including 263 active cases, two of whom were critical.

As of Wednesday, 85,466 patients have recovered while 4,636 died as a result of the virus, it added.