Authorities in China investigate video of officials dumping rice and eggs during Covid-19 lockdown
- Viral video shot in northern city of Jiamusi sparked public anger and state media commentary about perceived abuse of power and food waste
- District epidemic control command centre says authorities launched a process to ‘hold relevant officials responsible’
The video, which was widely shared on Chinese social media over the weekend, showed a man cutting open a new bag of rice and breaking a bag of eggs before dumping them in a rubbish bin as a voice-over said “everything that comes from outside will be destroyed and all thrown away”.
The city of Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province reported five new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and 30 asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, according to the provincial health commission. A citywide lockdown began on September 18 after the first two infections in the outbreak were reported the previous day.
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The Jiao district epidemic control command centre said in a statement on Monday that the video was shot by staff at the Hongqi Street community who found some residents “did not follow the prevention and control requirements and forwarded rice and eggs privately”.
The staff deemed supplies from “the outside” as risking the spread of the virus, so they shot the video, the statement said.
It said staff directly involved in the incident had been “seriously criticised and educated” and authorities had launched a process to “hold relevant officials responsible”.
“We will learn from the past and seriously rectify the situation, especially to strengthen the training of professional epidemic prevention knowledge and skills for frontline epidemic prevention staff,” the statement said.
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The statement failed to quash public anger over what was perceived as an abuse of power and a waste of food.
A popular science blogger called Homegrown Nature, who has 1.38 million followers, commented: “By this logic, foreign air and dust have the same risk of spreading viruses. Is it necessary to start building vacuum covers to cover neighbourhoods and cities? Ridiculous and absurd.” The comment has more than 13,000 likes.
“Wasting food as a means to remind residents to be safe from the virus is only counterproductive,” said another Weibo user.
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Xiake Dao, a social media account affiliated with the overseas edition of People’s Daily, published a commentary depicting the incident as an abuse of power.
It said it was not the first time epidemic prevention had been carried out irresponsibly. “If we want to make a thorough and convincing change, we have to investigate deeply,” the commentary said.
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“How much rice has been dumped before and what has happened to those responsible? Was it to take care of the monopoly business and make money from epidemic prevention? All these should be investigated clearly,” it said.
