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Officials Held Accountable for African Swine Fever Outbreak

Although African swine fever continues to spread in China, the authorities emphasized that the epidemic is “overall controllable.” However, according to a local government website, 223 people in Liaoning and other places have been held accountable for deliberately hiding the epidemic information and have been slack in performing their duties of monitoring and investigation.

On December 30, 2018, Inner Mongolia’s Chinese Communist Party’s website published a release from the Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, titled, “The General Office of the State Council seeks accountability for the prevention and control of African swine fever in Liaoning, Anhui, and Hunan.”

The above news was not widely picked up by mainland Chinese media. According to the release, the General Office of the State Council issued letters to Liaoning, Anhui, and Hunan, demanding serious investigation for responsibilities. These three provinces have seen intensive outbreaks of cases and even a small-scale epidemic.

According to the report, some county and township government officials in Liaoning Province passed the buck around, some deliberately hid the outbreak information and failed to implement the monitoring and investigation. In some cities and counties in Anhui and Hunan Provinces, the prevention and control work was not in place and there was a lack of efficacy in performing their duties. A total of 223 officials in the three provinces were punished.

The report also reminded the government officials that they must understand the difficulty and complexity of the prevention and control of the epidemic.

Source: Central News Agency, January 2, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201901020056.aspx