A British student nurse who went to the holiday island of Majorca to get over the loss of her partner found herself in a living hell after she tested positive for COVID-19 before her flight back, according to her interview with the BBC. Sophie Burdge, 22, was confined to the Hotel Palma Bellver after testing positive for the coronavirus prior to her flight back to England. She says hotel staff not only failed to check on her condition despite her negative test, but neglected to even give her water or allow the food she ordered to be delivered to her room. “I was crying my eyes out because I was so hungry, I was starving,” she told the BBC. She said another quarantining guest who did have water cut up a bed sheet and tied it to a bottle of water before lowering it down to her. Eventually other guests used the same system to get food delivered up to their rooms. “People are ordering food and putting the rope down and the delivery guy will just tie it on,” she told BBC.

In a statement to the British broadcaster, the hotel said that it had to run its services like a hospital rather than a hotel due to the COVID-19 restrictions. “The operation is sanitary (more similar to that of a hospital than to that of a hotel), and therefore the meals (four a day) are served by the hospital catering, supervised by hospital dietitians,” the hotel manager wrote. “The guests/patients are allowed to order meals outside, (as well as other basic supplies) but not processed food, as per the doctor’s prescription.”