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One of the primary requirements of flattening the COVID infection curve is to keep those infected isolated. Just as in the first wave, in the second wave too, hotels all over the country are coming forward to accommodate those who are infected and need a temporary shelter. From Delhi to Kolkata and almost in every city hotel owners are offering their rooms for safe stay of patients till the infection persists.

Arvind Kejriwal asks for safe homes

In Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced last week that hotel rooms would be converted into safe homes or medical facility.

According to a government order, the hotels that will be used for this purpose are Hotel Pitrashish, Fraser Suites, Caspia Hotel, Crown Plaza Hotel, Seven Sea Hotel, among others.

These extended Covid centres provide regular hotel services such as accommodation, housekeeping, disinfection and food to the “patients”. If a patient develops severe symptoms or fall ill, they would be immediately transferred to private hospitals linked with the hotels.

Star category hotels in Mumbai

Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)  are jointly looking for 3, 4 and 5 star category hotels for treatment. They have published a standard operating procedure for the hotels-turned-into-safe-homes. For Bombay Hospital they have tagged Intercontinental Marine drive Hotel and for HN Reliance its trident BKC Hotel.

In Chennai and Ahmadabad, a couple of hotels have already been turned into a medical facility or safe home. Local authorities are in search of more hotel rooms from the neighboring places to combat the pandemic.

In Kolkata, The Hotel and Restaurants Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) has already offered about 1,000 rooms as satellite hospital units since last week. The association accommodated 2,000+ hotel rooms during the first wave of the pandemic. The number of rooms will gradually go up to 2,500 this time.

The association has over 800 members in Bengal with more than 60,000 beds.

Safe homes in Bengal’s districts

“This time we are using our machinery to arrange satellite medical units or safe homes outside Kolkata too,” said Sudesh Poddar, secretary, HRAEI.

“Rooms in districts such as North 24 parganas, Darjeeling, South 24 Parganas, Birbhum, Bardhaman, Jalpaiguri etc are also in our radar. Very soon we will hand over the details list to the state.” added Poddar.

Safe homes are required for those who test positive but need no treatment since they have mild symptoms and need to stay in isolation for a few days.

“My husband stays in another city for work. When he visited me last week, he tested positive but he was not ill to merit medical attention. So, he promptly checked in a hotel in Kolkata,” said Aditi Kundu, a communication professional living in north Kolkata.

Stadiums and open-air theatres

Clearly it is not possible in most homes that have a few people living in one, two or three rooms in cities. It is also beyond any single agency, state-owned or private, to offer thousands of rooms, or other temporary accommodation to keep those infected in isolated condition that is necessary to prevent other from catching the infection.

In every city, governments are arranging for safe homes. For example, in Bengal two stadiums and an open air theatre have been used as safe homes.