Beijing (AsiaNews) - At least 11 deaths is the provisional toll - as of yesterday evening - for the collapse of a hotel in Quanzhou (Fujian), which was being used to house and isolate dozens of coronavirus positive people.
The Xinjia hotel collapsed on March 7 evening; 71 people were trapped under the rubble. As of yesterday afternoon, 37 people had been pulled out and taken to hospital; 11 were declared dead. Rescue teams are still searching for the other 23 people who are thought to still be under the collapsed building.
The authorities arrested the owner of the building, who is also the owner of the hotel. From the first investigations it would seem that he had the building renovated in 2016 enhancing its comercialviability with two supermarkets, which weakened the load-bearing structures.
On the other hand, yesterday marked an important positive step: for the first time in almost two months, there are no new infections in the rest of China, excluding Wuhan. According to the National Health Commission, there were 44 new cases as of yesterday evening, the lowest number recorded since January 20.
All new cases were registered in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, except for three "return" cases, that is, of Chinese from abroad, registered in Beijing (2) and in Gansu (1).
Yesterday, 27 new deaths were also recorded, bringing the total death toll to 3097. The number of infected people across the country is 80695.
