Around 70 people were trapped after a hotel being used as a quarantine facility to isolate people who had close contact with coronavirus patients in China's Quanzhou collapsed.
According to the Chinese state media, at least 47 of them have been extracted from the debris of the five-storey Xinjia Hotel. It was not yet clear if anyone died but dozens of people were still trapped under the rubble.
147 rescue workers sent to the spot
The hotel was launched in 2018 and reportedly had 80 guest rooms, most of which were used to isolate suspected coronavirus patients. According to the Xinhua news agency, several teams of 147 rescue workers have been sent to the spot along with firefighters and search dogs.
"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," Global Times tweeted.
As of Friday, there were 296 confirmed cases of coronavirus or COVID-19 in the Fujian province, where Quanzhou city is located. More than 10,000 people, who came in contact with the infected persons, have been placed under observation. Dozens of them housed in the collapsed hotel.
The COVID-19 outbreak first started in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province in December last year. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the virus has infected over 101,000 people and killed more than 3,500 with the majority of them in the Hubei where the outbreak originated.
Coronavirus cases in India jump to 34
Meanwhile, India on Saturday reported three more positive cases of Coronavirus, taking the total number of infected persons in the country to 34. The Union Health Ministry said that of the three new cases, two persons are from Ladakh with a travel history to Iran, while one is from Tamil Nadu who recently travelled to Oman. All three patients have been kept in isolation facilities and their condition is stated to be stable.
Apart from them, at least 150 people, who came in contact with a US tourist tested positive for the virus, are under surveillance in Assam. The American tourist, who left for Bhutan and tested positive for the deadly Coronavirus. Assam Health Minister Pijush Hazarika said that workers and staff of a resort in Jorhat where the US tourist stayed have also been quarantined.
