A quarantine hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, collapsed on March 7, killing 29 of the 71 people trapped inside. The guests were being quarantined after coming into contact with suspected Covid-19 patients.
The collapse, according to media reports, happened several minutes after construction workers that were renovating a supermarket in the first floor of the Xinjia Express Hotel found a pillar supporting the supermarket was faulty.
Officials confirmed that the seven-story hotel which opened in 2018 was rebuilt from a four-story office building completed in 2013, with the three additional floors made into interlayers. This renovation, building experts said, was likely to have compromised the integrity of the building.
Investigators sent by the central government did not find any information about the building’s designers, constructors and supervisors in the registration database of the local housing bureau, which is illegal.
Although the exact cause is still under investigation, the public is more concerned about why such a questionable building could be used for quarantine and whether any officials were involved in any illicit deals related to the hotel.
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