GEORGE TOWN – The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) has proposed that hospitality properties be converted into temporary low-risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC) to cope with the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state.
Its vice president Khoo Boo Lim said this option is now available given the fact that many hotels have either decided to shut down operations temporarily or permanently.
Some 100 hotels have been in this dilemma since March.
Khoo said the PKRC will address the acute shortage of beds to treat Covid-19 cases with mild symptoms and asymptomatic cases.
He said some hotels are willing to sign up for this provided the authorities reduce the bureaucracy and ensure that a full sanitisation process is implemented.
“Each time a patient is discharged, the room must be fully sanitised and left vacant for a few days.”
Khoo said that it may not necessarily be the entire hotel which adopts PKRC; perhaps just several rooms can be devoted to it – and if patients want better standards, they must be willing to pay.
MAH Kedah chapter chairman Eugene Dass said that hotels in Kedah are also willing to be converted into PKRC but added that the state must be willing to offer them a sensible deal.
“And there must be an assurance that the threat of infection will not exist after the virus is contained.”
Khoo believed that this move would also address mounting complaints about the liveability standards at quarantine centres where patients are packed into a hall with double decker beds.
“Some well-off patients will not stand for this. They would rather be self-isolating at home where their private amenities are suitable.
“Look, if one has the virus, one will surely want to be in the best of conditions to try to heal as soon as possible. Being cooped up in one location with no proper access to good broadband connections or television can be seen as a nightmare for some patients,” he said.
Khoo said there were instances where one could not even sleep due to the proximity to other patients. “And in many cases, many of them only developed mild effects and they can recover, while some remain asymptomatic throughout their ordeal,” he said in an interview.
Currently, there are about 300 hotels listed as quarantine centres, but they are mostly for Malaysians returning home from overseas or travellers heading back to their country of origin.
A fraction of them comprises students, government officials, investors, and the business community.
Technically, the hotels accommodate those returning for up to 14 days where they are confined inside their hotel rooms with meals obtained via room service or food delivery. – The Vibes, May 15, 2021
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