14:22

Chinese authorities reportedly scrambled to move people out of quarantine hotels which need safety inspections after the deaths of at least 10 people in a collapsed hotel.

Laura (not her real name), a British teacher and her partner were suddenly placed in enforced isolation in Shenzhen after a ferry trip about 10 days ago. On Thursday, she told the Guardian she endured a “terrifying” experience as five people in hazmat suits came to test them at her home before they were whisked to quarantine.



But their period in isolation has taken a new twist after a transfer to another hotel. “We were sitting on the bed and noticed orange speccy marks,” she said.



“We soon realised it was bed bugs and we were moved into the room next door. But the moment we came into the second room we lifted a corner of the sheet and a live bed bug ran across the sheet, then we found another one under the pillow.”



They were moved to a third room, but also found blood marks resembling those created by bed bugs. “Clearly the whole hotel is infested with bed bugs,” she said.

The couple have four days remaining in quarantine at Yinglun hotel in Shenzhen, but they don’t want to risk sleeping in the bed.



“We’ve been sitting on the table and window sill, avoiding fabrics, asking for help because there is nothing else we can do,” Laura said.



“It’s hard to know who to be most frustrated with. Everybody here is just doing their job. They can clearly see this is ridiculous but they can’t offer us a solution.



“Our school is saying they could deliver us some pesticide or send a mattress. It’s really sweet but is this what it has come to? It’s a farce.”



At the previous hotel, she had been passing the days practising yoga, reading and watching the sitcom Parks and Recreation, but she has spent her time at the new lodgings demanding another room while taking videos of the mess and lice.



The hotel has offered the couple a “final deal” to remove the pillowcases and sheet, but cannot provide another double mattress. It has threatened to separate the couple into different rooms if they do not accept. “I think it’s just a threat,” Laura said. “Be quiet or we’ll separate you.”



Twenty-three people remain missing after the five-storey hotel in Quanzhou, about seven hours from Shenzhen in southern China, collapsed on Saturday.



According to Laura, this led to an assessment of all other quarantine hotels amid fears of others falling down. “Ours needed a full inspection,” she said. “I’d questioned whether smoke alarms were working as there were guards smoking beneath the sensors.



“I was also told the electricity was extremely unable, which is why we could not have a fridge in our room. The whole building is being inspected today after it was abruptly emptied.”



Health authorities in Guangdong province have fiercely guarded against “imported cases” of coronavirus, after a 35-year-old man from Shenzhen who had been working in Bristol tested positive this month after flying from Heathrow to Hong Kong.



It was unclear whether he became infected in the UK, but Chinese authorities said two of the patient’s colleagues in Britain had reported coughs and fever.

