Order delinking 3 Delhi hotels serving as COVID-19 facilities from hospitals withdrawn
A fresh order issued by SDM (Dwarka) said that the previous order delinking the hotels from COVID hospitals, issued on July 4, was withdrawn with "immediate" effect.
No reason was stated in the new order behind the move.
Earlier, in his order on July 4, SDM (Dwarka) had said that Piccadilly at Janakpuri district Centre, Taj Vivanta in Dwarka, and Pride Plaza in Aerocity had been delinked from COVID hospitals Mata Chanan Devi, Akash Healthcare, and Venkateshwara, respectively, after approval of the principal secretary (Health and Family Welfare) of the Delhi government.
It was mentioned in the order that very few hotel rooms were being utilised by the hospitals for keeping COVID-19 patients. The hotels also claimed they were incurring "huge expenditure" on maintenance and payment of salaries, it had stated.
"It's a shock for us that the authorities have withdrawn the delinking order. We have been facing problems in meeting our expenses. Almost no COVID patients were sent to our hotel by the hospital. We will have to go for cost-cutting, including retrenchment, to survive in these conditions," said a representative of one of the three hotels.
Four hotels -- Piccadilly, Taj Vivanta, Pride Plaza and Welcome in Dwarka sector 10 -- were attached with four COVID hospitals in mid-June to serve as extended facilities for coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms.
However, only 25 of the total 900 rooms of the four hotels were occupied over the past fortnight.
The three hotels were delinked, and only Welcome was to serve as an extended COVID care facility for the hospitals, the earlier order had said.
The Delhi government had in early June empowered the district magistrates in 11 districts to use hotels as an extension of hospitals treating COVID-19 patients as the cases surged.
A total of 40 hotels were designated as extension of various hospitals across the city.