Mumbai’s 4/5-star hotels may double up as Covid centres

Four and five star hotels in Mumbai may be used as Covid-19 care centres as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) looks to address the shortage of hospital beds in the city. The city’s Covid case count dropped to 6,905, lowest so far in April.

Hotels, however, are not sure how this would be implemented as they are not designed to function as hospitals. They (hotels) are willing to offer their properties for quarantining patients, who have turned negative and for health care workers.

However, converting hotel rooms into hospitals for positive patients poses practical challenges, said a top executive of the Hotel Association of India (HAI).

Municipal commissioner I S Chahal on Monday announced that certain four star and five star hotels will be requisitioned to create Covid care centres for positive patients. These would be run by professionals from major hospitals.

K B Kachru, vice-president, HAI, and chairman emeritus and principal advisor, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, said while hotels will cooperate with the local authorities, there are practical challenges in turning hotel rooms into Covid care centres.

“The authorities have to understand that hotels cannot have hospital beds. Our door size is such that it cannot accommodate the hospital beds,” said Kachru.

“They (the local authorities) should be requisitioning hotels for the quarantine facilities when patients turn negative,” he added.

Spokespersons at Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) and ITC Hotels said they have been offering their properties in Mumbai for quarantining negative cases and health care workers.