As hospitals on the Big Island are on the verge of implosion due to the massive arrival of patients with Covid-19 in its severe form, the Council of Ministers decided this week to urge hotel owners from the capital to hire patients with milder forms.
as reported from Antananarivo, Laure Verneau
Hotel owners in five facilities in the capital have already in less than 36 hours expressed their interest in receiving coronavirus patients at the Federation of Hotel Owners and Restaurateurs in Madagascar (Fhorm).
This represents one hundred rooms. A list of criteria must be respected: parking, telephone line, functional electricity that can support oxygen units, tiled floors, ventilated rooms and above all no air conditioning …
Only patients suffering from the mild form of Covid-19 will stay in. These hotels will be equipped with two doctors, 8 medical staff and the amount of medicines needed for the treatment, the Council of Ministers’ report also specifies.
Second step, decide if the candidates are eligible. The task will be performed by the Ministry of Health before the costs are determined: it is about renting rooms to patients.
Johann Pless, president of Fhorm, explains “We do not yet know if it will be a single interest rate or an individually negotiated interest rate”. It also remains to decide on the logistics: which patients, for how long, what equipment … “We had already done this in March 2020, with passengers having to observe a period of containment on arrival.”
In parallel, the Ministry of Health has launched a call for proposals to strengthen teams of doctors and paramedics at the coronavirus treatment centers.
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