A person driving from Wuhan City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, to Shandong Province's Jining City on January 21 infected several staff members of Rencheng Prison with the novel coronavirus, which then triggered the eventual outbreak at the prison, the result of an investigation into the matter authorized by the central government showed.

The investigation team has filed an investigation into 11 government officials involved in the outbreak for violations of law and discipline, three judicial staff for dereliction of duty and two others for hindering epidemic containment work.

Shandong Province on February 21 reported 207 coronavirus infections, including seven prison officers, in Jining City's Rencheng Prison, on a day that multiple virus hotspots emerged in prisons across China.

Xie Weijun, party secretary of the Prison Administrative Bureau of Shandong Province, and seven other local authorities were dismissed following the outbreak at Rencheng Prison.

China's Ministry of Justice released a statement on Wednesday supporting the decision made by the investigators. The virus outbreak at Rencheng Prison exposed problems existing in the government departments of Shandong Province, the statement said. The ministry vowed to face and solve these problems to guarantee the final victory against the COVID-19 epidemic.