Hotels as COVID Care Centres

• Win-win for business-starved Hotels and patients who do not have Home Isolation facilities 
• Five-star Hotels and Resorts also open doors

Mysore/Mysuru: Space is critical to surviving the pandemic. With a lot of homes not having enough room to isolate COVID-positive patients, hotels are offering rooms on their premises to be converted into exclusive COVID Care Centres. This is for non-critical and also asymptomatic patients. 

This is a time when hotels in Mysuru are empty and it makes good business sense to offer rooms for COVID patients as the number of infections is seeing a surge and there are limited options of converting establishments into COVID Care Centres. 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by Mysuru Hotel Owners Association and Mysuru Association of Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Clinics and Diagnostic Centres (MAHAN) enabling hotels in Mysuru to offer over 3,500 rooms to accommodate COVID-19 patients. The agreement has been signed to create more and more facilities in case the infections go beyond control.

There are over 3,500 rooms in hotels of various categories in Mysuru and as home isolation is the norm these days many homes may not have the facilities to keep a COVID patient and there is a risk of the virus spreading to other members of the family in case there are no exclusive quarantine rooms in houses. 

“Such people can opt for a stay in hotels and the treatment and day-to-day care will be provided by healthcare professionals associated with MAHAN. There are low range, mid range and high range category hotels in Mysuru that offer rooms from Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 4,000 per day. Along with room charges, MAHAN will add their service charge, doctors fee and other costs and these will be paid by the patient,” C. Narayanagowda, President of Mysore Hotel Owners Association, told Star of Mysore. 

“This facility will actually help total isolation from the families and will also curtail the spread of the virus. Good food, accommodation, healthcare and other facilities will be provided to patients and this will also help business-starved hotels to earn some income. We are under terrible losses after lockdown and even now, there are no bookings,” he added. 

This is to handle asymptomatic-positive and mildly symptomatic patients who do not need critical care, who cannot isolate at home. “Hotels will become extensions of hospitals and hotel staff will be trained in various aspects of patient care including diet, since all meals are provided. Nurses and doctors will be posted for patient care by MAHAN. If complications arise, patients are shifted to the hospital,” Narayanagowda revealed. 

The MoU has been signed and will be implemented after informing the District Administration and the Health Department. “In case a family has two COVID-positive patients, they can be accommodated in a double room. In other cities like Bengaluru, Delhi Mumbai and Kolkata such system prevails. There have been two major kinds of people who have chosen this kind of isolation in other cities — those with aged parents and very young children at home. For them, this is the best way to isolate,” he added. 

Mysuru Stay Covid Care Centre is another such  COVID Hotel offering four-star facility for COVID patients.