Wang Tianqin, deputy secretary of the Zhuozhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China; Jia Jianyong, deputy mayor of Zhuozhou; Liu Zhenjiang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Zhuozhou Municipal People's Congress; Shi Zheng, director of the city health bureau; and Zhang Delian, head of the city epidemic prevention station, were sacked on Sunday.

Five other lower-ranking officials of the city were also removed from their posts.

The dereliction of duty derives from a situation which took place in early April when a woman in her 50's accompanied her husband to a Beijing hospital. Two weeks later, in Zhuozhou, the woman came down with a fever.

After receiving treatment in a local clinic and a hospital, she was sent to a hospital in Baoding City and was diagnosed with SARS on April 26. She died on April 30.

Her husband, her son, her daughter-in-law and several other people, who were in close contact with the woman, have all now either contracted SARS or are suspected of having contracted the virus.

An investigation has shown that the abovementioned officials failed to take effective measures to prevent the woman from infecting other people.

In a related development, Baoding City, a major town in Hebei Province, has also taken a series of measures to control the spread of SARS and has harshly sanctioned several officials for dereliction of duty.

Those removed from their posts include Jia Xiaopu, director of the health bureau of Boye County, for failing to ensure the construction of new isolation wards which were ordered by the municipal government.

(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2003)