Hotels undergoing transformation to house infected patients, medical personnel

[webfact]

Hotels undergoing transformation to house infected patients, medical personnel

By The Nation

 

 

With both Thai and international tourist numbers shrinking sharply amid the Covid-19 crisis, hotel business revenue continued to show zero growth in the first dew days of April.

 

Many hotel operators decided to open rooms for medical personnel living in different provinces to stay for free since they have to toil in order to control the disease.

 

A number of hotels have also agreed to “transform” their facilities or rooms into temporary hospitals to support the recovery of patients with mild illnesses. This comes after the Public Health Ministry asked the hotel sector to cooperate in an attempt to battle the coronavirus.

 

For example, Eastin Tan Hotel in Chiang Mai, owned by Tan Passakornnatee, commonly called “Tan Oishi”, is collaborating with the Public Health Ministry and Chiang Mai province to house hospital and medical personnel caring for and treating patients.

 

Natai Beach Resort and Spa in Phang Nga is another example. Autthanop Pandkamnerd, president of Cissa Group, has opened up to 106 rooms to help not only foreign tourists in Thailand who are unable to leave due to the crisis but also frontline medical personnel fighting the disease.

 

Many hotel operators are interested in helping out but they must pass a standard assessment and get approval from the Department of Medical Services first.

 

In Bangkok, there are two hotels – the 270-room Princeton Hotel, which has already accepted 50 infected people, and the 439-room Palazzo Hotel, which expects to house patients this week.

 

According to the Public Health Ministry, as of April 2 more than 100 hotel operators in Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima applied for evaluation. Sixteen of the hotels have passed and received an A-rating.

 

At least 2,000 rooms are being considered for preparation in case the number of infected people rises dramatically.

 

Source: http://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385535?utm_source=category&utm_medium=internal_referral

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-08

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[smedly]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

hotel business revenue continued to show zero growth in the first dew days of April

someone please explain how and empty hotel shows zero growth - what does that mean ?

 

For me and empty hotel is burning cash and is in fact in negative growth - bleeding cash

 

Maybe if certain Thais weren't threatening foreigners with violence they might just come back when this is all over, I actually hope they don't for at least two years - then they might be appreciated when they do

[jonclark]

Why are Hotel doing this?? There have only been 2000 cases which should be easy to accommodate in existing medical facilities and we are on aa downward trend of infections. This makes no sense unless...? 

[donnacha]

9 minutes ago, jonclark said:

This makes no sense unless...? 

Yup.

 

[donnacha]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Natai Beach Resort and Spa in Phang Nga is another example. Autthanop Pandkamnerd, president of Cissa Group, has opened up to 106 rooms to help not only foreign tourists in Thailand who are unable to leave due to the crisis but also frontline medical personnel fighting the disease.

Those existing guests must be absolutely delighted.

 

[gk10002000]

14 minutes ago, jonclark said:

Why are Hotel doing this?? There have only been 2000 cases which should be easy to accommodate in existing medical facilities and we are on aa downward trend of infections. This makes no sense unless...? 

Follow the money is probably the best answer when some things don't seem to make sense.  Who owns the hotel?  How much are they paid to convert?  Who monitors the money going into the conversion?

[donnacha]

11 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

Follow the money is probably the best answer when some things don't seem to make sense.  Who owns the hotel?  How much are they paid to convert?  Who monitors the money going into the conversion?

The question is not so much who is paying for the emergency accommodation - the government - but why they feel they might need it.

Why prepare thousands of hotel rooms for emergency workers, when Thailand has only 1,343 active cases and only 61 serious enough to require hospitalization?

According to the official stats, Thailand has one of the lowest levels of infection in the world, an extraordinary feat for a country that remained by far the most popular foreign destination for the citizens of Wuhan, right up until the Chinese government finally stopped them flying.
 

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by donnacha

[NCC1701A]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

has opened up to 106 rooms to help not only foreign tourists in Thailand who are unable to leave due to the crisis but also frontline medical personnel fighting the disease.

[Thailand]

Could it be at all possible that the actual infection rate figures may have been fudged a little?

[TheFishman1]

I don’t believe any of the numbers the government gives out TIT

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, smedly said:

someone please explain how and empty hotel shows zero growth - what does that mean ?

Sugar coating the bad news!

[justin case]

less than  30 deaths in 3 months, had millions of chinese tourists, almost no new cases but

 

LOCKDOWN + no more flights + people losing jobs + most things closed

 

mhhhh, what are they not telling

[Bangkok Barry]

4 hours ago, smedly said:

Maybe if certain Thais weren't threatening foreigners with violence they might just come back when this is all over, I actually hope they don't for at least two years - then they might be appreciated when they do

Yes. The same people who run the FB page are strangely quiet, though, about the number of Thais who have been arrested and charged with breaking curfew. That is the LAW, not a request, but they are Thai so no hate campaign about them.

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, justin case said:

less than  30 deaths in 3 months, had millions of chinese tourists, almost no new cases but

 

LOCKDOWN + no more flights + people losing jobs + most things closed

 

mhhhh, what are they not telling

If the figures were huge then social media would have been screaming the truth. Maybe now, the extreme measures are meant to maintain the status quo. I can only imagine that the millions of Chinese kept mostly to their own groups, as we know they do. I can't think of any other explanation to explain the low numbers otherwise.

[SkyFax]

19 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

1 hour ago, justin case said:

less than  30 deaths in 3 months, had millions of chinese tourists, almost no new cases but

 

LOCKDOWN + no more flights + people losing jobs + most things closed

 

mhhhh, what are they not telling

If the figures were huge then social media would have been screaming the truth

People on here have no problem routinely calling the Thai Government and Permanent Secretary corp imbeciles, ignorant, and incompetent. Yet they also seem to have no problem accusing the same of orchestrating a cover-up of COVID-19 infections and deaths and supplying phony epidemiological data hiding the impending doom worthy of MI6 or the Mossad.

[gk10002000]

4 hours ago, donnacha said:

The question is not so much who is paying for the emergency accommodation - the government - but why they feel they might need it.

Why prepare thousands of hotel rooms for emergency workers, when Thailand has only 1,343 active cases and only 61 serious enough to require hospitalization?

According to the official stats, Thailand has one of the lowest levels of infection in the world, an extraordinary feat for a country that remained by far the most popular foreign destination for the citizens of Wuhan, right up until the Chinese government finally stopped them flying.
 

 

like I said, if it does not make sense follow the money. 

[soi3eddie]

15 hours ago, webfact said:

both Thai and international tourist numbers shrinking sharply amid the Covid-19 crisis

This must be a real challenger for the most obvious statement of the year so far. New international tourists = Zero. Are any Thais going on vacation within Thailand any time soon? Doubtful.

 

Fair play to the hotels offering their services to the "government" for medical personal and to be makeshift hospitals. At least a survival tactic to stave off closure or bankruptcy. Tourism and the hospitality economy was dead long ago and certainly is now. Will be this way for a long time. Hotels closed and many shuttered (at least here in Hua Hin). Restaurants closed or take away only - how long can they survive? Low (NO) season is coming anyway. International tourists will have no money to spend on trips for a long time to come. Globally.

[ericthai]

10 hours ago, SkyFax said:

People on here have no problem routinely calling the Thai Government and Permanent Secretary corp imbeciles, ignorant, and incompetent. Yet they also seem to have no problem accusing the same of orchestrating a cover-up of COVID-19 infections and deaths and supplying phony epidemiological data hiding the impending doom worthy of MI6 or the Mossad.

It's ignorance and incompetence of the Thai govt to not be testing everyone and get real numbers. So, its not a cover up just the typical "everything is ok" as nobody wants to tell the boss there is a problem or issue.  

 

It's just dumb luck that Thailand is not being hit hard, why? who knows maybe from everyone wearing masks for the pollution. 

[Trip Hop]

11 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

If the figures were huge then social media would have been screaming the truth. Maybe now, the extreme measures are meant to maintain the status quo. I can only imagine that the millions of Chinese kept mostly to their own groups, as we know they do. I can't think of any other explanation to explain the low numbers otherwise.

Maybe not if you take into consideration the stigma that is now showing to be apparent with the locals regarding this virus?  Add to that, that it is entirely possible that medical staff have been told to keep cases hush (or fear possible retribution), as I was told by a good source last night, then it might be possible?  Personally I know of a local who was taken to the hospital and 4 days later his family are still not allowed to visit?  Pretty strange considering the family would normally be expected to do the majority of day to day caring (except medication etc) for their relative whilst in a government hospital?

 

Also, as another TV member (who appears to be very knowledgeable and rational in the medical field) posted on another thread, the datasets being released are not as comprehensive (i.e. some important classifications are missing) when comparing to the rest of the world, therefore it is possible that a true comparative picture is not being painted?

 

I'm not saying that I'm right and I truly hope that I am wrong.  However when you take into account the reported number of cases against  measures now being taken with regards to the field hospitals and curfews etc, it does lend itself to the fact that there appears to be some 'smoke and mirrors' going on?

[SkyFax]

6 hours ago, Trip Hop said:

Also, as another TV member (who appears to be very knowledgeable and rational in the medical field) posted on another thread,

While not necessarily the same 'knowledgeable individual' to whom you refer, one frequent contributor to data intensive posts also predicted that (maybe) there will be panic spreading out at the point where the hospitals are overrun. Maybe in in 2-3 weeks.

 

That was on 14FEB2020