As number of active cases declines, hotels released from Covid duty in Delhi

The decision to delink the hotels that were attached to various hospitals in the city was taken by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a meeting after consulting with the state health and revenue departments.

With Delhi now having only 10,770 active Covid-19 cases, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Wednesday released from Covid duty around 40 hotels that were converted into extended hospitals since May 29. Senior government officials said the administration is now considering allowing hotels and even banquet halls to resume normal operations, provided that they strictly adhere to the norms of social distancing, sanitising, mask wearing and restrictions on the number of people in gatherings.

On June 12, when Covid cases in the capital were rapidly rising, the Delhi government had released a list of 77 banquet halls and 40 hotels that were to be converted into Covid facilities to cope with the requirement of beds. (HT file photo)

The decision to delink the hotels that were attached to various hospitals in the city was taken by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a meeting after consulting with the state health and revenue departments.

“A few hotels were attached to hospitals to increase the number of Covid beds. In view of the improving situation and because most of these hotel beds are lying vacant for the past many days, these hotels are now being released,” Kejriwal tweeted after the meeting.

On June 12, when Covid cases in the capital were rapidly rising, the Delhi government had released a list of 77 banquet halls and 40 hotels that were to be converted into Covid facilities to cope with the requirement of beds. A total of over 15,800 beds were identified in these hotels (4,628 beds) and banquet halls (11,229 beds). The model was a first in the country and it was approved by the Delhi government on May 29, when it had identified the five hotels to be converted into extended Covid hospitals.

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These hotels were Crowne Plaza (attached to Batra Hospital); Hotel Surya ( attached to Apollo Hospitals); Hotel Siddharth ( attached to BL Kapur Memorial Hospital); Hotel Jivitesh (attached to Sir Gangaram Hospital); and Sheraton Saket ( attached to Max Super Speciality Hospital).

Of these, only Sheraton Saket operated as an extended hospital for the longest time; the rest did not receive any patients.

An official of Max Super Speciality Hospitals, which was operating the Covid centre at the Sheraton hotel in Saket, said on condition of anonymity that the facility was discontinued “a while ago” as all Covid patients being treated there were cured and no new patient has opted for the hotel.

A spokesperson of the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, which was allotted three hotels, said it did not have to use any of the hotels for Covid patient management as the hospital was able to handle the patient intake.

Ramesh Dang, president of Delhi Banquet Federation, said Delhi is losing out a lot of revenue since all social gatherings are now being booked at hotels in Gurugram, Noida or other NCR cities.

“Under the Unlock guidelines of the Central government, hotels and banquet halls are allowed to operate. But, Delhi had banned it in view of the high number of Covid-19 cases here. But, now that the cases have come down, these establishments must be allowed to open. We all are losing a lot of revenue since weddings and other social gatherings are being shifted to other NCR cities,” he said.

Hotel and tourism associations welcomed the Delhi government’s move, but demanded that hotels now be allowed to resume services and tourism be promoted. “Tourism is one of the largest economic multipliers and we believe that each rupee spent on tourism could have an economic multiplier of upwards of 3- 4 times more for India. We have been requesting over the past five months for the revival of tourism,” the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality said in a statement.

The government in a statement said, “With the efforts of the chief minister, the coronavirus situation in Delhi has improved significantly and at present, only about 10,000 cases are active and more than 88% of patients have recovered. As on Wednesday, the Delhi government has more than 15,000 Covid beds, of which more than 12,000 are vacant. So, the demand of hotel owners and associations to relieve them of Covid duty was accepted on Wednesday.”