China health official is punished over video games, bribery

A health worker gets a swab sample from a woman to be tested for Covid-19 coronavirus at a swab collection site in Beijing. People across China were outraged earlier this year when two hospitals denied care to a pregnant woman and a man who later died after suffering a heart attack. — AFP

A health-care official has been kicked out of China’s ruling Communist Party for offences including “long-term addiction to mobile games” following an uproar over a woman who suffered a miscarriage because she was refused care while the city of Xi’an was locked down.

Li Qiang, former head of the Xi’an Medical Emergency Center, will face criminal prosecution for dereliction of duty, embezzlement, and accepting “huge amounts of money and property” as bribes, graft investigators said in a statement late Tuesday.