China’s efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic to a standstill suffered a setback, Saturday, as a five-storey hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou.
State media reported that four hours after the collapse, about 38 of the 70 trapped had been rescued.
Al-Jazeera reported that a video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over rubble and twisted steel work carrying people towards ambulances.
The collapse came at a cruelly ironic time; a time the world has started praising China for rapidly slowing the prevalence and spread of the coronavirus in a country where some 77000 had been infected and over 3000 dead.
This triggered fresh fears of a possible setback.