Coronavirus: Many Trapped as China Quarantine Hotel Collapses

Seventy people were trapped after a hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in Quanzhou, China, collapsed.

According to officials, about 35 of the 70 people have been pulled from the rubble of the Xinjia Hotel.

Videos posted online show emergency workers combing through the building’s wreckage in the southern province of Fujian.

It is not clear what caused the collapse or if anyone has died.

The collapse happened at about 19:30 local time.

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According to Chinese state media, the hotel was being used as a quarantine facility monitoring people who had had close contact with coronavirus patients.

Xinjia Hotel reportedly opened in 2018 and had 80 guest rooms.

One woman told the Beijing News website that relatives including her sister had been under quarantine there.

She said: “I can’t contact them, they’re not answering their phones.

“I’m under quarantine too [at another hotel] and I’m very worried, I don’t know what to do. They were healthy, they took their temperatures every day, and the tests showed that everything was normal.”

As of March 6, Fujian province had 296 cases of coronavirus. Meanwhile 10,819 people have been placed under observation because they have been in close contact with someone infected.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 101,000 people worldwide have now contracted the virus.

More than 3,000 people have died – the majority in the Chinese province of Hubei where the outbreak originated.