Delhi names five hotels as Covid hospital extensions

New Delhi: The Delhi government has requisitioned five hotels that will be converted into extensions of designated Covid-19 hospitals, a move that took hoteliers by surprise. Hotel Crowne Plaza, Hotel Surya, Hotel Sheraton, Hotel Siddharth and Hotel Jivitesh can be requisitioned by the district magistrate and assigned to the hospitals, which will provide medical services, the Delhi health and family welfare department said in an order, which ET reviewed.
Hotels have been attached to Batra Hospital & Research Centre, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Dr BL Kapur Memorial Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital and Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital. The attached hospitals will admit their Covid-19 patients in the hotels, as per the patient’s medical condition. Delhi has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases among Indian cities.

The hotel owners said they were completely taken aback by the move and had not been consulted. “We have also come to know about it through public domain. Our hotel has been completely shut since day one of the lockdown. It’s not that easy to open the hotel again as our fixed costs are so high and we were bleeding,” said Manju Sharma, owner of Hotel Siddharth. “We want to assist the government and had given Jaypee’s sports complex for migrants. But ours is a closed hotel and we don’t know how we will manage.” Luv Malhotra, owner of Hotel Surya, said he was stunned to see his hotel’s name in the order.

“We understand the problem is severe, but at least try talking to people,” Malhotra said. According to the order, the private hospitals are required to take over the entire hotel indicated against their names and provide sufficient manpower and other consumables.