Beijing, Mar 10 : The death toll from the collapse of a hotel used as a quarantine facility in China’s Fujian province has risen to 20, local officials said on Tuesday.
The Xinjia Hotel in Licheng district in Quanzhou city was used to quarantine and observe people who had come to the province during the novel coronavirus prevention and control and had come in contact with the virus patients. The hotel collapsed on Saturday.
Sixty-one people have been pulled out of the debris of the hotel so far and among them 20 have died, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
On Monday night, a 10-year-old boy and his mother were rescued 52 hours after being trapped in the rubble.
At the time of the collapse, a total of 71 people were trapped and nine others managed to escape. Ten individuals remain trapped as rescue efforts are ongoing.
A preliminary investigation showed the hotel building was being decorated when the accident occurred and the owner of the building has been put under police control.
The novel coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year and has claimed over 3,000 lives in the country.
