A hotel in China used as a quarantine area for those with the coronavirus collapsed Saturday.
The Xinjia Hotel, built in 2018 and located in Fujian, collapsed for unknown reasons, trapping 70 people under the rubble. The building had 80 guest rooms and housed Chinese residents who had close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19.
Footage captured at the scene of the event shows responders attempting to assist those trapped. “The Ministry of Emergency Management has sent a team to the site of Xinjia hotel, which collapsed in E China’s Quanzhou on Sat evening, to assist local rescue work. The hotel is a medical observation site for close contacts with #COVID19 patients,” the Global Times, a state-run publication, wrote in a tweet.
#Update: The Ministry of Emergency Management has sent a team to the site of Xinjia hotel, which collapsed in E China’s Quanzhou on Sat evening, to assist local rescue work. The hotel is a medical observation site for close contacts with #COVID19 patients. https://t.co/44iEe8I1SV pic.twitter.com/L2ADWCrXr9
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 7, 2020
According to the Chinese government, 35 people have been rescued, but it remains unknown if anyone was killed. In total, nearly 11,000 people have been placed in a similar quarantine in Fujian, with 296 testing positive for the virus in the Chinese province.
There have been over 100,000 global cases of COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization, killing 3,405. In the United States thus far, 126 cases have been confirmed. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at least 10 people have died nationwide.
