Coronavirus: China dismisses officials after boy with cerebral palsy dies while father quarantined

Yan Cheng, 16, was left alone at home in town near centre of outbreak

Two government officials in China have been sacked after a teenager with cerebral palsy died while his family was in quarantine for coronavirus.

Yan Cheng, 16, was found dead in bed at his home in the town of Hong’an in Hubei province – the epicentre of the outbreak – on Wednesday.

Six days earlier his father and 11-year-old brother had been taken to a facility 15 miles away after developing a fever.

The father had asked relatives, village officials and doctors to take over Yan’s care while they were away.

But officials only fed him twice during that time and the boy’s aunt was unable to visit for the last three days due to ill health, according to local authorities.

Government officials launched an investigation into the death after the story trended on the social media website Weibo.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) the Communist Party chief and town chief of Hong’an had both been dismissed.

“The local government was not practical and realistic when carrying out work and failed to perform its duty,” it added in a statement.

The death toll from coronavirus in China rose to 425 by Monday night, with 20,438 confirmed cases since the start of the outbreak in Wuhan.

There have also been more than 150 confirmed cases of the virus outside China, including one death in the Philippines.

Additional reporting by Reuters