Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10) — Metro Manila has no more hotels to spare for the government’s proposal to convert these into isolation facilities or temporary hospitals, an industry leader said Saturday.
The Philippine Hotel Owners Association, he noted, is composed of 70 owners with a total of 300 hotels.
Lopez said that while some of the member-hotels were tapped for the government’s “Oplan Kalinga” targeted for mild and asymptomatic patients, converting accommodation establishments into temporary hospitals may not be feasible.
“That’s going to be very difficult kasi maraming kailangan to support patients… so I don’t know. But ang problema wala tayong maibibigay na hotel,” he said.
[Translation: That’s going to be very difficult because there are many requirements needed to support patients… so I don’t know. But the problem, there is no hotel available.]
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Lopez said owners saw at least an 80% drop in revenues since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“Yung nakukuha ng OWWA, we’re able to pay our employees who are working this time and also able to pay electricity namin… Nakakatulong ng malaki sa mga hotel ‘yan otherwise tuluyan na magsasara kami,” he said.
[Translation: What we’re getting from the OWWA, we’re able to pay our employees who are working this time and pay for our electricity… It helped a lot for the hotels, otherwise, we will be forced to shut down.]
While most hospitals in areas under enhanced community quarantine are now at critical level, with more health workers getting infected, a health official on Saturday said the medical workforce is “not yet depleted”.
“Hindi po talaga depleted nang husto ang ating health workforce,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in the same briefing.
[Translation: Our health workforce is not really depleted.]
This, despite the move to deploy health workers from provinces to the NCR Plus bubble.
Last week, Vergeire said the DOH deployed more than 100 medical workers. She added more people will add to the workforce in the coming days.
In a virtual briefing, Philippine Hotel Owners Association president Arthur Lopez said all hotels in Metro Manila are already “fully booked” as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration tapped them as quarantine facilities for returning Filipino workers from abroad.
