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9 March, 2020

Coronavirus: 10 killed in quarantine hotel collapse, as Northern Italy goes into lockdown

A hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility has collapsed, killing at least 10 people and leaving 23 missing.

The five-story Xinjia Hotel in China’s Fujian province had 71 people in it at the time, according to the BBC.

Rescue workers are still combing through the rubble of the building with dozens having already been rescued.

58 of those inside the building at the time were under quarantine for having been in close contact with coronavirus patients.

State media reported the first floor of the building had been under renovations but it is not yet clear what caused the collapse.

As of last week, Fujian province had 296 confirmed cases of the virus, with China overall recording 80,000 out of the 101,000 cases worldwide.

Infected hotel worker ignores quarantine advice

Meanwhile, closer to home, health authorities in Hobart have confirmed a man who was diagnosed with the virus did not follow quarantine instructions and went to work as normal as well as visiting nightclubs.

According to ABC News, a man in his 20s who had recently travelled from Nepal, transiting through Singapore, experienced cold-like symptoms the day he landed in Hobart but continued to work and attend his vocational college.

The man reportedly worked seven shifts at the Grand Chancellor Hotel’s restaurant, Tasman, as well as Cargo bar and O Bar between 10:00pm and 2:00am on 6 March.

Tasmania’s director of public health services Mark Veitch told ABC News the man contacted a telephone hotline on 6 March and was tested at the Royal Hobart Hospital that evening and was advised to self isolate until he received the results but he did not comply.

“It’s our belief that he did understand the requirements,” he said.

“It is unacceptable to continue activities in public or attend work while waiting for the coronavirus virus test results.”

Italy places one-quarter of the country in lockdown

The Italian government has announced new quarantine procedures that would effectively place a quarter of its population in lock-down to contain a rapidly developing outbreak.

The BBC reported that under a new decree people would be forbidden from moving in or out of Lombardy, where Milan is located, as well as 14 other provinces in neighbouring regions which encompass Venice, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini until 3 April.

16 million people are expected to be impacted by the decree.

What’s more, museums, gyms, cultural centres, ski resorts and swimming pools will be closed in the affected areas.

This comes as the number of people to have died of the virus shot up from 133 to 366 in just one day, with the total number of infections rising 25 per cent from 5,883 to 7,375.

**Another cruise outbreak as another passenger from Grand Princess dies**

An unknown number of passengers on board an A-Sara Nile cruise ship have been quarantined after 12 crew members tested positive for the virus.

Bloomberg reported authorities carried out tests on the cruise ship after the World Health Organisation alerted them that a Taiwanese-US citizen who was on the cruise tested positive for the disease after she returned home.

The ship was forced to withdraw 20km from Luxor and placed in quarantine, according to Egypt Today, with the 12 confirmed cases transferred to a hospital for quarantine.

Those infected were Egyptian but the nationalities of the quarantined passengers are not yet known.

In other cruise news, a second passenger from the Grand Princess has died after returning home while thousands on board the cruise remain in quarantine off the coast of California.

This brings the death count of passengers from that particular cruise to two, both in their 70s.

Onboard the ship, nearly half of the 46 people tested have returned positive tests according to The Guardian.

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