Pictured is the Wuhan Vocational College of Software and Engineering's student's dorm. Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

 A college in Central China's Wuhan, epicenter of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, apologized publicly on Monday after some netizen posted video clips that showed student dormitories in the college were ransacked and requisitioned for quarantine use.

The Wuhan Vocational College of Software and Engineering posted their letter of apology through Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like social media platform, and apologized for the school's cleaning operations which were heavily criticized and compared to robbery after their operation was exposed on Sunday. 

"The brutal operation might take place without students' permission," some netizens remarks.

The college said that they apologize for some staff's careless and improper actions and promised to pay compensation for the losses regarding students' personal belongings.

After the school received the order that its dorms would be requisitioned as a makeshift quarantine spot on February 7, the college informed all the students and called faculty back to college to carry out preparation work, and wanted to clean the dorms as soon as possible so that patients would get quarantine and treatment quickly, the school explained. 

The statement also thanked all its students' sacrifice and expressed support for all the people fighting in the battle against the epidemic. 

As of press time, the statement had received 228,000 likes and 12,000 comments. Many netizens still blame the school for the destruction of personal property, as many people claiming online to be students posted that their expensive Air Jordan shoes and cosmetics had been treated like rubbish.

Global Times