WUHAN, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The discipline inspection authorities in China have strengthened supervision and taken strict measures to deal with unqualified and derelict officials during the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

On Tuesday, a Red Cross Society official in central China's Hubei Province and a government official in Wuhan, the provincial capital, also the epicenter of the epidemic outbreak, were removed from their posts. Meanwhile, two other government officials in Wuhan were penalized following a health official's removal from office in another city in the province hit hard by the novel coronavirus recently.

Misconduct including dereliction of duty and misappropriation of relief funds and materials will be investigated and handled in accordance with the law, said a guideline issued by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the National Supervisory Commission.

Discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels should actively perform their duties to promote the implementation of joint prevention and control of the outbreak, it said.

When chairing a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Monday, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, demanded resolute opposition against bureaucratism and the practice of formalities for formalities' sake in the prevention work Monday at a meeting on the prevention and control of pneumonia epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus.

Those who disobey the unified command or shirk off responsibilities will be punished, Xi said, adding that Party and government leaders supervising them would also be held accountable in severe cases.

OFFICIALS DISMISSED IN EPICENTER OF EPIDEMIC OUTBREAK

A Red Cross Society official in Hubei has been sacked after the charity organ came under fire over receiving and handling of donations, the provincial supervisory commission said Tuesday.

Zhang Qin, full-time deputy director of the Hubei branch of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), has been removed from office for dereliction of duty in the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic. Zhang was also dismissed from the leading Party members group of the RCSC Hubei branch committee of the CPC, and given a serious intra-Party warning as well as a serious administrative demerit, it said.

An investigation showed that relevant officials and cadres with the RCSC Hubei branch failed to take responsibility when receiving and distributing donated funds and prevention goods in the effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus epidemic. They were also found to have violated relevant regulations and be responsible for information disclosure errors, the commission said in a notice.

Meanwhile, Chen Bo, a member of the leading Party members group of the RCSC Hubei branch committee of the CPC, was given a serious intra-Party warning and a serious administrative demerit. Gao Qin, chief of the RCSC Hubei branch committee of the CPC and also the executive vice director of RCSC Hubei branch, was given an intra-Party warning, according to the notice.

On the same day, Xia Guohua, a member of the leading Party members group and deputy head of the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Statistics, has been removed from office and was also given a serious intra-Party warning as well as a serious administrative demerit for violating relevant regulations to distribute face masks, according to the city's supervisory commission.

Two other officials, Meng Wukang, Party chief and director of the Wuhan Municipal Development and Reform Commission, also the Party chief and head of Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Statistics, and Huang Zhitong, deputy director of Wuhan municipal government office, were admonished, the commission said.

Tang Zhihong, director of the health commission of the city of Huanggang, Hubei Province, was removed from her post last week because she had unshirkable responsibility for problems including insufficient screening for suspected cases, slow progress of tests and lack of testing personnel.

The problems were found out by a central government inspection team designated to guide the epidemic control work in the city which has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus, according to local authorities.

Huanggang then sacked six officials over poor performance in the epidemic prevention and control. Three of them were county-level officials and the rest were village or township-level officials.

Huanggang mayor Qiu Lixin said that a total of 337 officials in the city had been penalized following inspections over Huanggang's anti-coronavirus work.

WHOLE NATION INTO ACTION

The anti-graft body in the eastern Chinese city of Yueqing in Zhejiang Province announced Monday that it fired two health officials and punished its vice mayor over dereliction of duty in the ongoing coronavirus fight.

Ni Chengjian, head of Yueqing's disease control center, was fired on Sunday for having failed to take good account of the close contacts of infected patients, input the information about such contacts into the system and report an incident that caused seven cases of infection.

Xie Mingrong, head of Yueqing's health commission, was also fired. Yueqing's vice mayor Chen Weiyan has received a disciplinary penalty, both for their conduct as officials in charge of the local anti-epidemic effort.

A total of 170 officials have been penalized over poor performance in the effort to prevent and control the epidemic in the eastern province of Fujian. The Party Chief of Xiangwei Village in Lianjiang County was removed from his post for failing to closely monitor a villager who had returned from Wuhan.

The villager, who was not put under medical quarantine, went for family dinner at a relative's house, putting other residents in the village under risk of infection. Another village Party chief in the city of Ningde received a warning for not stopping villagers gathering for the Spring Festival celebration in time.

Similar policies have been adopted in many other provinces and regions. Officials at all levels who failed to perform their duties on curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus were punished or even sacked.

On Monday, Chen Xi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, called on the Party's organizational departments to better perform their duties in the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A circular issued by the department recently highlighted a performance assessment of leading officials in the epidemic control. Those who fail to fulfill their responsibilities or behave dishonestly should be held accountable, it said.