The local government’s announcement comes after depositors at small rural banks in Henan province, where Zhengzhou is located, publicly claimed that their health code suddenly changed from green to red when they started traveling to Henan. to protest the blocking of withdrawals.
Their case has aroused great public interest in China.
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, localities across the country have used color-marked health codes to grant individuals access to public transportation, hotels, and other basic amenities, using location tracers and other data to assess exposure to the virus.
Earlier this month, hundreds of aggrieved depositors en route to Henan reported that their health codes had suddenly turned red, raising concerns about government abuse of the health code system across the country.
According to Wednesday’s official statement, Feng Xianbin and Zhang Linlin, two officials from the city’s epidemic and control headquarters, “decided without permission” to issue red codes to aggrieved applicants traveling to Henan.
Three other officials then acted on orders from Feng and Zhang.
As punishment, Feng had his party credentials withdrawn, while other officials were slapped with fines, according to the statement quoting the authorities.
A total of 1,317 individual depositors had their codes turned red due to the actions of Feng and his cohorts. Officials “seriously breached the regulations governing the use of health codes”, authorities said.