SHANGHAI:
About 30 people remained trapped early on Sunday after a five-storey hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou, state media said.About four hours after the collapse, the Quanzhou municipality said 38 of the 70 or so people who had been in the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had been rescued.
A video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over rubble and twisted steelwork carrying people towards ambulances.
The hotel collapsed at about 7:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Saturday evening.
“I was at a gas station and heard a loud noise. I looked up and the whole building collapsed. Dust was everywhere, and glass fragments were flying around,” a witness said in a video posted on the Miaopai streaming app.
“I was so terrified that my hands and legs were shivering.”
Meahwhile,Chinese health authorities on Saturday said 3070 people had died from the coronavirus outbreak while, for the first time in several weeks, less than 100 new infections were reported from across the country.
The epidemic is showing signs of stabilising in China, especially outside the worst-hit Hubei provinces as it rages globally.
Chinese authorities continued to strictly screen international airports for infected people coming in or returning to China from abroad.
China’s national health commission (NHC) said Saturday 99 cases were reported from the mainland with 74 of those from Wuhan, Hubei province’s capital, from where the epidemic started in December.