FEDHASA, the national trade association for the hospitality industry, has put a call out to interested properties which wish to participate in its Self-Isolation Centre (SIC) initiative. The goal of the initiative is to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease, and requires hotel owners, management and staff to follow rigorous isolation, health and hygiene protocols.
Currently FEDHASA has called on expressions of interest to ascertain which hotels can offer SIC beds, how many and where these are located. Once this is received, FEDHASA will pass the information to provincial and national departments which will advise on the best process.
Should you be interested in allocating beds of this purpose, FEDHASA asks you to please consider the following:
- In Phase 1, hoteliers will continue to manage their own hotels and put in place required protocols. There may be a Phase 2 where government involvement is expected.
- Which Hotels, B&Bs and Guest Houses would be able to put forward empty rooms to accommodate people who requires isolation/quarantine?
- Are any able to offer all or some of their available rooms at no charge?
- Please specify:
- address
- total number of rooms available
- contact person for each
- The bill will be for the account of the individual(s) checking in. (For now, Government does not have access to fund this, but might at a later stage should things escalate which could unlock funding.)
- We would recommend a bed rate of R500.00 per person per night.
- Additional costs such as meals / drinks would be for each establishment to determine and for the persons own account.
- The accommodation establishment will operate as per ‘normal’ i.e. the current management is in charge as per usual.
- The accommodation establishment will need to take the necessary precautionary measures to safeguard their staff and to up put in place an operating procedure on how they will manage the arrival of the individual along with engagements during their stay with the establishment.
- Once the list of potential accommodation providers is ready, we would make contact with the hotel on a case by case basis.
- DOH will advise re isolation procedure and follow up with the isolated patient.
- Patients who we decide to isolate in hotels or such like accommodation will have very mild symptoms.
- However if it is noticed that their conditions change, DOH will intervene immediately, and if appropriate move the patient to a health facility.
- Enforcement of Isolation is unlikely to be a concern. The DOH will patients in terms of the legal consequence, should they not adhere to their isolation conditions.
If you are interested in participating, please register your expression of interest here. This will be shared with provincial and national bodies.
