China's Communist Party ousts senior official at center of coronavirus outbreak


China's Communist Party on Thursday fired several senior officials in Hubei province, the center of the new coronavirus outbreak.
The Central Committee said Jiang Chaoliang, Hubei's party secretary since 2016, has been removed from his post, and will be replaced by Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong. Ying is an ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The coronavirus outbreak originated in the Hubei city of Wuhan, and the Communist Party also fired the Wuhan party boss, Ma Guoqiang.
Chinese citizens have complained about how long it took for the government to acknowledge the outbreak, saying this slow response allowed the virus to spread. There are now 48,206 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Hubei, and the death toll stands at 1,310.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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