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Twenty-seven people were killed and 20 others injured after a bus reported to be transporting passengers to COVID-19 quarantine crashed during pre-dawn hours in China on Sunday (September 18).
The bus is reported to have overturned while traveling on an expressway in Guizhou province, Sandu county police confirmed in a statement obtained by the Associated Press, though not mentioning a connection to quarantine.
Police said all of the injured victims have received treatment.
Caixin, a Chinese business news outlet, reported that the bus was transporting "epidemic-related people" from the capital city of Guiyang to Lido county at the time of the crash, the AP reports.
China is currently enforcing a strict "zero-COVID" policy, which enforces that infected individuals are to be placed in isolation in an effort to combat the spread of the virus.
The bus is reported to have overturned at around 2:40 a.m. local time, according to the Guizhou Daily media group via the AP.
The reported crash took place two days after 180 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Guiyang on Friday (September 17) and 712 on Saturday (September 17), multiple news outlets reported.
The outlet reported that provincial leaders called for an examination into pandemic transfer and isolation procedures following reports of the crash.