Hubei prisons add 220 more new coronavirus cases to tally

Prisons in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, added 220 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia as of Thursday, rectifying the province's number of new confirmed cases to 631, according to a release by the province's health commission on Friday.

Another 10 suspected cases were also found in the prisons.

So far, the province's prisons have reported 271 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, among which 51 cases were included in the previous data.

The province has 631 new confirmed cases rather than 411 announced earlier in the morning, and 1,279 new suspected infections, according to the health commission.

The provincial commission rectified the total confirmed cases into 62,662 and suspected cases into 4,094 as of Thursday.

Prisons in Shandong, Zhejiang see surge in coronavirus cases

East China's Shandong province reported 202 new cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia on Feb 20, with 200 cases from a prison in Jining, according to a news release held by the Information Office of the Shandong Provincial People's Government on Friday.

Xie Weijun, head of Shandong Provincial Department of Justice, was removed from his post due to negligent prevention and control work at the prison.

Among the 200 patients, 125 are mild cases and 75 are ordinary patients. The province is sparing no efforts to cure the patients, including building a special hospital.

The suspected cases and those who had contact with confirmed patients are under quarantine for further medical tests.

In East China's Zhejiang, both the warden and the political commissar of a local prison were sacked from their posts after a novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak infected 34 prisoners, according to the local authorities on Friday.

The Shilifeng Prison, located in Quzhou in western Zhejiang, reported 27 new confirmed cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infected prisoners up to 34.

The prison has been put under closed management and all the prisoners who had been confirmed with the infection are under medical treatment, with suspected cases and those who had contact with confirmed patients under isolation.

Local police have launched an investigation into a prison policeman who was involved in the outbreak.