Pattaya hotel operators have offered to become “hospitels” and isolation centers, but bureaucratic red tape is holding up the switch, prolonging Pattaya’s coronavirus outbreak.
Pattaya City Councilmen Thanet Supornsahatrangsi and Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn, along with Phisut Sae-khu, president of the Thai Hotels Association Eastern Chapter, met Jan. 10 with Banglamung District Chief Wuttisak Singhadecho and district Public Health Director Kitti Boonrattananet to push through the proposal.
Phisut said 5,000-8,000 beds are needed for “hospitels”, or hotels converted to quarantine facilities for mildly ill coronavirus patients. But many infected with no symptoms could be warehoused at community isolation centers instead.
Pattaya had 18,000 alternative quarantine hotel beds last year. Those hotels are ready and willing to convert to hospitels or isolation centers and could do so quickly given they had already passed inspection, Phisut said.
But he added the approval has not been given for the switch due to regulations and government approvals.
The city councilmen – who are business leaders in Pattaya – urged the district administrators to cut through the red tape and get the converted hotels open. The faster it’s done, the faster the outbreak will end, they said.
Regarding home testing, if anyone should get a positive result, Chonburi Provincial Public Health Office and Banglamung Public Health have released five hotlines: 099-2719305, 066-0495383, 066-0536710, 099-5062590, and 066-0537923 to register for medical care.
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