Delhi's Taj Mansingh, Surya among list of hotels turned into COVID-19 facilities
NEW DELHI: Hotel Taj Mansingh and Hotel Suryaa are among several hotels that have been converted into Covid care facilities by the Delhi government following a spike in coronavirus cases in the capital.
The hotels will be attached to various hospitals, which can refer patients to these facilities where they will provided rooms and food.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the Hotel Suryaa, which will be attached to the Holy Family Hospital.
The visit comes aday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the Lok Nayak Jayi Prakash Narayan Hospital to take stock of the situation.
According to the government, in the next few days 30-35 hotels will be turned into Covid care facilities, taking up the number of beds by 3,000 beds for the coronavirus patients.
“The Surya Hotel is a dedicated Covid-19 facility attached to the Holy Family Hospital. Several other hotels like this will be requisitioned. This is a tough time for everyone and we all need to come together,” Kejriwal said.
“This facility should be operational with 120 beds initially in the next 2-3 days and will gradually be ramped up to 250-300 beds. Around 30-35 hotels will be requisitioned and around 3,000-3,500 beds will be added to the total bed capacity,” the CM added.
The hotels will meet the shortage in the number of beds and staff that hospitals are facing. The charges will be made to the hotel by the hospitals. The government has put an upper price cap on these hotel-hospitals at Rs 10,000 per day for providing housekeeping, food and medical services.
Kejriwal, who held two meetings with Shah, L-G Anil Baijal and other stakeholders, said working together with the Centre was the only way forward to fight the pandemic and limit its spread in the national capital.
The decision to attach hotels to hospitals was taken by the Delhi government in view of the acute shortage of beds in the city.
Last week, the Delhi government had said it expects to have 5.5 lakh coronavirus cases by the end of July for which the national capital will need 80,000 hospital beds.