Henan COVID cases

Central China’s Henan Province reported 41 newly confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the provincial health commission said on Monday.

Of the confirmed cases, 40 were previously categorized as asymptomatic carriers in the provincial capital city of Zhengzhou, while the other one was found in the city of Kaifeng.

Four new local asymptomatic cases, all in Zhengzhou, were also reported on Sunday. The province had reported 90 locally transmitted cases and 51 local asymptomatic cases of the novel coronavirus between July 31 and Sunday in the latest resurgence of COVID-19.

Apart from the 41 cases detected in Henan, the mainland on Sunday reported 94 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including 38 in Jiangsu, 12 in Hunan and three in Hubei, the National Health Commission said.

Sexual assault allegation

Technology giant Alibaba will sack a manager accused of sexual assault, according to a letter sent by its CEO Daniel Zhang to employees on the company’s intranet.

In the letter, Zhang said two other bosses who failed to act on the allegation have resigned. Alibaba is working with police after a female worker said that her male boss sexually assaulted her in a hotel room while she was unconscious after a “drunken night.”

Zhang said the manager accused of sexual assault had admitted that “there were intimate acts” while the woman was “drunk.”

Penalties to officials

Nanjing, capital city of East China’s Jiangsu Province, on Saturday announced penalties from demerit to dismissal to six officials after a COVID-19 resurgence at Nanjing Lukou International Airport sent the virus spreading to other parts of China.

Fang Zhongyou was removed from his post as director of the city’s health commission, over poor management and supervision of epidemic control and prevention, said Nanjing’s municipal Communist Party of China (CPC) commission for discipline inspection and the city’s supervisory commission. Hu Wanjin, vice mayor of Nanjing, received a demerit for the same reason. Yan Yingjun, former head of the Jiangning District, was demoted.

Fort Detrick probe

A Chinese netizen-initiated petition urging the World Health Organization to probe the U.S. Fort Detrick biolab concluded on Friday, garnering 25 million signatures online since its launch on July 17.

The online petition calling for a probe into the Fort Detrick represented the wide public opinion, said the Global Times newspaper, which was entrusted by a group of Chinese netizens to post the petition on social media.

The probe should revolve around the COVID-19 origin and the safety of the lab, according to the petition.

(SD-Agencies)