This screenshot taken from a China Central Television (CCTV) online report shows a health official of China's Xi'an apologizing for its failure to provide medical treatment to a pregnant woman who lost her unborn baby. (Kyodo)

       BEIJING (Kyodo) -- A health official of China's Xi'an, which has been locked down since late December amid the COVID-19 outbreak, apologized Friday for its failure to provide medical treatment to a pregnant woman who lost her unborn baby.

       In early January, the pregnant woman having contractions was denied entry at a hospital in Xi'an because her negative PCR test result had expired four hours earlier, the official China Central Television reported.

       The woman was admitted only after experiencing massive hemorrhaging outside the hospital, but too late to save the unborn baby, it added.

       With criticism mounting against the health authorities of the city of 13 million, officials of the hospital have reportedly been punished.

       Ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, slated to begin Feb. 4, the Chinese Communist-led government has been stepping up its radical "zero corona" policy as the highly contagious Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has been spreading globally.

       Many Chinese citizens have been apparently frustrated by strong restrictions by the authorities, which have been imposed on them since the virus -- first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 -- started to rage at home.

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0