Beijing: Nearly 5,800 people have been arrested in China for epidemic-related crimes since January. They were suspected of killing health workers, selling defective medical equipment and lying about their travel history.
As per the state prosecutor, nearly 5,800 people suspected of crimes related to the novel coronavirus pandemic have been arrested.
“From January to July, 5,797 people were arrested and 6,755 were prosecuted,” the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in a statement.
The ‘virus-related crimes’ also involve misusing of funds collected to help Covid-19 patients. Cases of murder have also been reported across the country with one person mowing down health workers with a car, and another beating a person to death for having been asked to wear a mask in a supermarket.
China has largely brought the spread of the novel coronavirus under control — since it first emerged in the central city of Wuhan in December 2019 — with strict lockdowns, aggressive contact tracing and close monitoring of neighbourhoods.