International students returned to quarantine, passports were withheld, quarantine site hygiene is extremely poor

Returned students exposed the isolation point of Renhe Nongjia Cuisine Hotel in Deqing County, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, with poor hygiene conditions. (Web screenshot)

The first of these is the fact that the company has been forced to isolate itself in a hotel in Deqing County, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, where there are more than 20 people, most of them International Students.

The walls and bedding are moldy and the wallpaper is peeling off. (Web screenshot)

The centralized quarantine site has poor sanitary conditions and poor basic measures for Epidemic prevention

Li Yun revealed to the reporter, “The isolation site is very far from the airport, the bus drove more than three hours. No one told me where to go on the bus. Maybe it’s because near the New Year, the epidemic prevention in Guangdong is very strict, so they pulled us to this small, remote county.”

She revealed, “The main thing is that this environment is really not suitable for epidemic prevention, the room is very humid, the walls are moldy, this store probably hasn’t been occupied for a long Time, probably because they can’t find a suitable hotel as an epidemic prevention site, so this place was commandeered.”

“There were no disinfection supplies in the room, and no hand sanitizer, which needs to be purchased from the hotel. One of the youngsters found a lot of garbage under the bed, and the others were afraid to look under their own beds.”

An international student in isolation at the Renhe Farmers’ Inn photographs the many trash under the bed in her room. (Web screenshot)

“There were still moldy quilts inside the cupboard. There were also female underwear left by a previous tenant in the cabinet of a junior partner’s room.”

“The bedding was not clean, and there was hair on the bed. One little one had skin allergy symptoms. The walls are moldy, the wallpaper is peeling off, and you can sleep at night and choke on the musty smell until you can’t sleep.”

People who were isolated here with Li Yun posted pictures of the hotel room online, where they asked for help and received responses from some netizens who had similar experiences.

Passport was forcibly withheld by public security personnel

It is understood that the local public security personnel also seized the passport documents of the isolated people, and said “not to pay the fee, not to return the certificate. Li Yun revealed, “We arrived here at the beginning and found that the conditions were very poor, we asked to change the hotel. But their staff replied that we could not change the hotel”.

“In the process of communication, one public security officer wanted us to go back to our room first and then communicate with him. His attitude was very bad, his voice was a bit loud and commanding, and he did not communicate with us peacefully.”

Faced with the other side’s tough attitude, these people, who had just returned to the country, had no choice but to hold their tongues. “Because if they change the hotel for us, they have to redeploy the staff, and they also need to send us there, so in order not to add to their burden and show understanding for their work, we stayed in.”

“At first it was also said that you can’t order take-out or express delivery. But we (international students) had needs for various aspects of study, so express delivery was allowed. But you can’t order take-out, probably because of the hygiene issue. The Food is fine, and we can eat well. The food is distributed uniformly to all the isolated points throughout the county.”

Li Yun said that under the strong demand of everyone, the public security officers returned the seized passports. Some netizens online revealed that passports were also seized during the quarantine period and were not returned until the quarantine ended.

A text message for help sent online by an international student in quarantine at Renhe Farmers’ Inn. (Web screenshot)

Quarantine charges are significantly higher than market prices

According to Li Yun, the room in Renhe Farmers’ Inn was originally 100 yuan a night, but now it has risen to 150 yuan, and the meal cost is 120 yuan per person per day. She said, “It’s really unreasonable and seriously damages the legitimate rights of consumers. Drinking water needs us to buy with the hotel, 4.5 liters of water costs 10 yuan, other isolation hotels are provided free of charge.”

Li Yun and other people in isolation at this hotel are still seeking help. Li Yun said, “We have communicated with the hotel staff, but they just asked us to understand them and hold on to them again. We also called the mayor’s hotline and the health commission, but the other side just said ‘it’s already being handled’ or ‘it can’t be changed’ and nothing more.”

Li Yun finally said helplessly, “In the future to set up such isolation sites, I hope to try to choose a better one and not to requisition places that have been deserted for too long for returnees to use, which is not good for epidemic prevention.”

Some netizens posted on Weibo revealed that “the quarantine sites are now full and the prices have been raised. My friend just finished quarantine, the environment and food is good, but the charges are also high, 14 days spent 10,350 yuan.”

“It’s not the top’s intention that these people can be like this? We used to refuse to stay in a certain 500 yuan a day in Shanghai, abandoned two years moldy hotel, but was thrown in the lobby without air conditioning, waiting for a full 9 hours, not given food and drink not allowed to go to the toilet, during the call to the major complaint hotline to no avail. The ‘people’s servants’ came to the hotel to negotiate with all kinds of sarcasm, mocking us as a virus, and finally drove us to collapse and exhaustion, forcing us to stay.”