McMaster offering isolation rooms for residents on the front lines

McMaster University has opened up spaces in its student housing for practising medical residents and arriving international grad students to self-isolate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Announced Wednesday, the university has allotted the spaces in its 249-unit Les Prince Hall in collaboration with Hamilton public health, Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. McMaster spokesperson Wade Hemsworth said the rooms could be used as a place for arriving international graduate students from all faculties to complete their mandatory 14-day quarantine.

They could also be used by medical residents, clinical and research fellows already training in local hospitals who are worried about exposing vulnerable family members to the virus when they return home each day, he added.

The rooms are being offered at a fee of $32 a day, said Hemsworth. For those in mandatory isolation, contactless meal delivery — which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner — is available at an additional $22 a day, he added.

Inside the residence, those who are required in isolation will have to stay alone in their rooms. Those who are working within hospitals, but have not been exposed, will be able to come and go for work, according to the university. Following protocols established by public health, the two groups will split apart.

Parveen Wasi, associate dean of McMaster’s postgraduate medical education program, said the spaces allow the university to continue their health care and training tasks with minimal disruptions.

“This new alternative takes stress out of an already demanding period for these members of our community,” Wasi said in a press release.

According to Hemsworth, the offer for the rooms was sent out earlier this week and the first phase of the program will run through July 1.

That may extend, but would be dependent on the circumstances of the pandemic, said Kevin Beatty, director of housing and conference services for the university.

Due to COVID-19, the demand for residence spaces usually rented out by conference attendees and campus visitors had “fallen away,” creating the chance to offer the rooms.

“We want to be as helpful and as responsive as we can,” Beatty said in a press release.