Punishment given in case of infected Wuhan woman returning to Beijing

Four departments in Beijing, including a highway checkpoint, sub-district community, Beijing CDC, and related property management companies, were punished after a probe into the case of an infected woman returning to Beijing from Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak, in February, a senior capital official said on Monday.

A group was established on Feb 26 by the Beijing Commission for Discipline Inspection to conduct an investigation on how the infected woman, an ex-prisoner surnamed Huang, was driven by her family members to the capital and entered a neighborhood community. Group members looked for loopholes in the capital's epidemic prevention and control work, said Xiao Sa, a senior official at the capital's Discipline Inspection Commission, in a daily media briefing on efforts to combat the virus in Beijing on Monday.

Xiao said the expressway that Huang traveled to enter Beijing only had one auxiliary policeman at the checkpoint to conduct body temperature checks on Huang and her family members, which showed normal temperature results. The highway staff didn't check their identities again, as required.

The Xinyijiayuan community in Beijing's Dongcheng district, where Huang and her family live, also allowed cars to drive in if the vehicles had been recorded previously; taking body temperature was not required, Xiao said.

"It resulted in Huang and the people who followed her entering the parking lot directly," he said.

Additionally, Xiao said telephone operators at the Beijing Center for Prevention and Disease Control replied, "There are no restrictions in Beijing's traffic as long as you can get on the highway in Wuhan," to queries from Huang's family about whether a car from Wuhan could enter the capital.

The on-duty auxiliary police officer at the checkpoint on the highway was dismissed and the deputy director of the inspection station, who oversaw the auxiliary police that day, has been removed from office, Xiao said. The Chongwai sub-district office that manages the Xinyijiayuan community also was reported on its accountability, he added.