Venezuela to set up hotels to isolate COVID-19 patients

Amid the contingency caused by COVID-19, hotels across the country will be set up to provide comprehensive healthcare to COVID-19 patients who require isolation, said Vice President of Communication, Culture and Tourism Jorge Rodríguez. At the Presidential Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, he explained that the measure is aimed at those coronavirus-infected patients that do not require hospitalization in an effort to “not overload hospitals” of the public healthcare system. “They can perfectly be in hotel beds, duly safeguarded by medical and nursing staff,” he said. Rodríguez explained that this decision was made after Venezuela’s government authorities reached an agreement with the Venezuelan Association of Hotel Chambers. Likewise, he detailed that there are 4,800 beds available, distributed in 573 Comprehensive Diagnosis Centers of Venezuela’s healthcare public system. Last Monday, the Venezuelan government decreed a collective quarantine in the country’s 23 states and the Capital District in order to contain the propagation of coronavirus. So far, the self-isolation measure reaches a 90 percent compliance rate according to figures released by the Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. Jorge Rodríguez pointed out that social distancing is the most effective measure to fight this pandemic and, again, he appealed to the citizens’ conscience and discipline to observe quarantine. “This is a disease for which you provide yourself treatment. You take care of your children by staying a home during this quarantine,” he stressed. Presidential Press Office