Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the hospitality industry has been hit especially hard as no one is booking hotel rooms or holding conferences. But solidarity during this trying time has released an inspiring movement.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the hospitality industry has been hit especially hard as no one is booking hotel rooms or holding conferences. But solidarity during this trying time has released an inspiring movement. Hotels and convention centers are offering their facilities to serve as makeshift healthcare lodging for patients who are no longer critical, but who continue to need medical care. This provides much-needed relief for public and private hospitals, allowing them to increase capacity and focus on more critical patients as the outbreak grows.
Separating the seriously ill from those with lesser ailments, and confining the latter in medicalized hotels and other facilities converted into temporary hospitals under medical supervision, has been one of the key adjustments made in China to deal with the coronavirus epidemic and alleviate the emergency services of hospitals, according to experts and doctors.
The so-called 'Noah's coffers' in China are beginning to be launched now in certain regions of Spain, Italy, the UK, and the US to provide care for mild patients who right now cannot continue to be cared for or remain in quarantine in overrun public health service facilities. These are hotel properties with certain sanitary support where patients who have already passed the most complicated phase of the disease, after five to seven days of hospitalization, will be able to be transferred to quarantine under the supervision of doctors and nurses. This allows government health policies to make hospital beds more available so that more serious patients can enter the hospitals. Medicalized hotels will allow hospitals to focus care on critically ill patients which represent approximately 30% of all confirmed cases in these countries.
In addition, over 300 hotels in Spain have reconverted their activity to offer healthcare services to both patients and professionals. Regarding medical professionals, hotels are also allowing them to stay in their properties since many healthcare providers are visiting from other parts of the country to provide care or live in the region but prefer this alternative to avoid exposing family members or housemates to the contagion if they were to return home after each shift.
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting 209 countries and territories around the world. Currently, there is no approved treatment for COVID-19, but those who are infected can recover with the appropriate care that treats and relieves symptoms. Importantly, recovering from COVID-19 doesn't mean that a patient immediately returns to feeling healthy which is why these hospitality conversions are needed and greatly appreciated. But among the chaos, society and teams of scientists are working to tackle the killer bug – heroic medics are working tirelessly to help others and people are recovering in huge numbers!
China has closed down its last coronavirus hospital because there are not enough new cases to support them. Researchers from several institutes, including the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, have published a paper (which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed) that reports on a neutralising antibody for the new coronavirus. In other good news, the Cleveland Clinic has developed a COVID-19 test that gives results in just hours, and not days.
While there is still a great deal of suffering as the world actively combats the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s comforting to see the hospitality industry – which has taken such a big hit during this time – working with healthcare to provide what help they can.
