China punishes local officials as delta epidemics spread

China has punished scores of officials for failing to stem a Covid-19 outbreak that has spawned nearly 900 symptomatic infections across the country in less than a month, a resurgence that complicates Beijing’s strategy to keep the virus completely out.

The eastern Chinese city of Yangzhou has warned five officials over mismanagement of mass testing which they say allowed the virus to continue to spread. The city has overtaken neighboring Nanjing, where the delta-triggered outbreak first began, as China’s largest hotspot, with 308 confirmed cases reported on Monday. Six patients are seriously ill and if one of them were to die, it would be the first death from Covid in China in more than six months.