NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MAY 12
Indian industry has come forward to support the government in expanding the network of isolation facilities in the country that could support patients who need to be quarantined to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Under the novel initiative that has brought together hospitals, hotel chains, commercial banks, food delivery service providers and FMCG companies, 600 rooms in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi have been launched for isolation and quarantine of largely asymptomatic Covid-19 patients.
The plan is to take this up to 5,000 rooms within the month so that an alternate quarantine facility is created especially to handle large numbers of Indian nationals being brought back to the country under government”s Vande Bharat Mission.
The model is envisaged to have a combination of self-paying and CSR funded customers who need to be quarantined.
The initiative is part of a joint industry partnership – ”Project Stay I” announced last month. It has been worked out by industry body Ficci and Apollo Hospitals in collaboration with OYO, Fab Hotels, Lemon Tree & Ginger.
The project involves setting up of 5,000 isolation Rooms across multiple facilities in Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, and Kolkata. These isolation rooms will house guests that need isolation and while Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation ensures remote medical service, SBI, Deutsche Bank and HUL will be the financial partners, and OYO, Lemon Tree & Ginger will be providing their facilities.
The project would also offer a de-stressing experience for the healthcare workers as an innovative telemedicine solution has been devised to create a protected medical layer over the isolation rooms.
The purpose of partnering with multiple facility brands is to ensure that all socio-economic segments of society have an equal opportunity to avail of these services.
OYO supports govt’s ‘Mission Vande Bharat’
“We applaud the government’s ‘Mission Vande Bharat’ to bring lakhs of stranded Indians back home. We, at OYO as a responsible corporate, stand ready to provide hygienic and safe accommodation facilities so that every Indian who comes back can safely quarantine themselves. These repatriated Indian nationals can opt for our pay-per-use self-quarantine/isolation facilities (as advised by any state/central govt authority) for the mandatory 14-day quarantine period at a reasonable and affordable price. We have set up a helpline (oyo_care@oyorooms.com) to ensure we are taking requests from people as well as all state, local governments and relevant authorities to determine the best ways to support them. We are also taking several property-level actions to ensure customer and hotel employees’ safety. This includes Zero-Touch SOPs for contactless services for our guests. OYO is maintaining the highest levels of sanitization across its active properties with an increased focus on regular hand washing, use of masks and hand sanitizers for its staff interfacing with customers. We have also stocked up on protective equipment at these properties for our guests’ safety. OYO will do its best to keep its doors open for all those who need support during these testing times.”
The cities where these quarantine facilities are available are Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chennai, Vapi, Surat, and Baroda.
A lead form will be made available on the Apollo website for a customer and a confirmation for the room will be shared within three hours (if available).
“In addition to Zomato being our F&B partner and HUL committing to supply PPE Kits, Sanitizers, Soaps, and other Protective gear, a project of this magnitude or magnanimity will need several partners across the supply chain to come on board,” Apollo Hospitals has said in its Project I mission statement.
The hotel rooms for quarantine would not only be available to people who are willing to pay, but a certain category of rooms would be made available free of cost to those who cannot afford it.
The country’s largest bank SBI, Deutsche Bank, and HUL have agreed to fund 50 percent of category 1 rooms provided by Oyo so that it could be offered to people who cannot afford it. All standard operating procedures developed by the government for quarantine centres would be followed by the hotels.
