JILIN – The mayor of Jilin City in northeast China’s Jilin Province was removed from office as COVID-19 cases continued to rise in the city.
Wang Lu, deputy Party secretary and mayor of Jilin City, the second-largest city in Jilin Province, was sacked on Friday evening, according to an official decision by the Communist Party of China’s Jilin Provincial Committee.
Another official, Li Xin, was dismissed as head of the Jiutai district in the provincial capital Changchun. The city has been conducting closed-loop management against COVID-19 since Friday.
On Thursday, Zhang Lifeng, committee party secretary of Jilin University of Agricultural Science and Technology in Jilin City, was fired for negligence and ineffective response to a cluster infection at the university.
On Friday, Jilin Province reported 134 confirmed cases, bringing the number of confirmed cases in mainland China to 588.
From March 1 to Friday, Jilin city alone reported 1,034 confirmed local cases of COVID-19, which some internet users suspect is the “fastest increase” in mainland China since the outbreak in Wuhan.
The Jilin City Health Commission said on Saturday that the infection in the city continued to rise rapidly.
As nucleic acid tests are carried out across Jilin City, more confirmed cases are expected to be found. The city conducted the seventh round of nucleic acid testing on Saturday.
