China Sanctions 3 Red Cross Officials Over Mishandling Medical Donations in Hubei

"Responsible managers and members of the Red Cross Society have been committing negligence and deplorable inaction when receiving and distributing donations at the time of the fight against the virus outbreak", the provincial discipline oversight commission said in an announcement.

The administrative measures include dismissing and officially reprimanding, with the issuance of a disciplinary penalty, the deputy head of the Hubei Red Cross Society Zhang Qin, and officially reprimanding executives Gao Qin and Chen Bo.

The Red Cross Society of Hubei has been under fire over the past several days after the pleas of local medical staff on social media for more aid revealed that only a small part of what has been donated to Hubei from across China has actually been delivered to the hospitals that treat infected patients.

The outbreak of 2019-nCoV, also referred to sometimes as the Wuhan coronavirus after the central Chinese city where it presumably originated, began last December. The current toll of lethal cases stands at 426 and 20,520 people count infected worldwide.

The Red Cross was among the five organisations that the Chinese government mandated with handling coronavirus-related donations. They were to serve as hubs where the donated cash and medical supplies would flock to then be distributed among hospitals that need them.

As doctors took to social media to decry critical shortage of protective masks and clothing amid daily exposure to the deadly virus, it became known that of 2 million donated masks only 200,000 actually reached hospitals, including those that did not need them.