The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is working with the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) to provide hotel rooms to isolate COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms.
Minister Wishnutama Kusubandio said the ministry had allocated a Rp 100 billion (US$6.7 million) budget to turn three-star hotels into self-isolation centers for patients. The hotels would also provide food, beverages and laundry services for the patients.
The hotels were expected to house 14,000 patients from September until December.
Each patient will spend 14 days in the quarantine centers.
“The selected hotels are not allowed to accept guests during the period,” Wishnutama said during a press briefing on Thursday.
He added that the patients would also be monitored during their quarantine by medical personnel provided by the Health Ministry.
Medical workers would also be tasked with monitoring the implementation of health protocols at the hotels and providing supporting facilities, such as ambulances and medicine.
“The hotels are required to implement health protocols to avoid creating new clusters,” said the minister.
The ministry would focus the program in five provinces, namely Jakarta, Bali, North Sumatra, West Java and South Kalimantan. Wishnutama said several hotel groups had agreed to participate in the program, such as Tauzia Hotels – the operator of Yello and Pop! hotels – and Accor, which runs Ibis, Novotel and Mercure hotels.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo previously said the government would provide more facilities to house asymptomatic coronavirus patients or those with mild symptoms to self-isolate, as the number of daily COVID-19 transmissions continued to rise.
A number of one-star to three-star hotels and training centers will be transformed into self-isolation centers, the President said.
