Chonburi needs up to 8,000 hotel beds to house mildly ill Covid-19 patients as the coronavirus wave rises in Pattaya.
Chonburi on Friday reported 1,342 new Covid-19 cases, a whopping 712 of them in Banglamung, which includes Pattaya. The district has seen more than 2,000 new cases this week alone.
The overwhelming majority of those cases are either asymptomatic or people with only mild symptoms. As such, the mildly ill won’t be admitted to hospitals but, ideally, sent to “hospitels,” or hotels modified to handle quarantine.
Phisut Sae-khu, president of the Thai Hotels Association-Eastern Chapter, said Jan. 6 that the Chonburi Public Health Department requested 5,000-8,000 “hospitel” beds.
A number of Pattaya-area hotels previously operated as hospitels or quarantine facilities and volunteered to do so again, he said.
The Brighton Grand Hotel and Bay Beach Resort Jomtien both are ready to accept patients, Phisut said. Meanwhile, another two or three large hotels with more than 500 beds each are preparing to open as hospitels within a couple days.
Phisut urged the hundreds of people waiting for hospitel beds not to seek treatment at hospitals, as those beds must be reserved for the truly sick.
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