What’s new: Five district officials in Shanghai are being held accountable, after a nursing home resident was transferred to a funeral parlor while alive.
In a viral video on Sunday, a body can be seen being retrieved from a funeral home car parked at the entrance of Shanghai Xinchangzheng Welfare Hospital, a local senior nursing home. A voiceover from what appears to be a witness can be heard saying that funeral home staff returned the senior resident to the nursing home, as the elderly person was found to be still alive.
In a statement published by Shanghai's anti-corruption agency late Monday, the communist party secretary and bureau chief of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Putuo District, Zhang Jiandong, has been placed under party investigation. Another four officials from the government and the nursing home — including the nursing home’s president — were removed from their positions and placed under investigations as well.
Xinchangzheng updated on Monday that the elderly woman has been admitted to a hospital, according to state-owned media eastday.com reporting.
Background: As Shanghai has entered its fifth week of citywide lockdown, vulnerable segments of the community, such as seniors, have been hardest hit. Multiple nursing homes in Shanghai have reported mass contagions amid this wave of outbreak. Among the Covid death cases, many were elderly people with underlying health conditions.
On Monday, the city reported 7,333 local infection cases, only half of last Monday's figure, but still higher compared to other provincial-regions in China. Shanghai’s Covid restrictions had previously disrupted access for many to food and essential medical care.
This story was updated to correct the name of the agency overseeing the investigation and the sex of the victim.
Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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