DOT: 21 Metro Manila, Calabarzon hotels converted into isolation facilities
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism said 21 accommodation establishments in the National Capital Region and Calabarzon have been repurposed into isolation and quarantine facilities.
As of April 18, the DOT said these hotels converted into isolation facilities are providing some 2,222 rooms.
Oplan Kalinga Secretariat also coordinated with two AEs in Quezon City with 184 rooms on standby.
Since the enhanced community quarantine last year, hotel accommodations have served as temporary shelter to on-duty medical frontliners and Business Processing Outsource (BPO) employees as well as stranded local and foreign travelers whose travels were halted by the community quarantine movement restrictions.
Moreover, hotels have also been converted into quarantine facilities for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), returning overseas Filipinos and foreign nationals allowed entry.
The DOT said there are a total of 131 AEs in NCR and the CALABARZON region or 29,153 rooms made available for OFWs as quarantine hotels thru the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
On the other hand, a total of 7,687 rooms in 48 AEs in NCR are non-OWWA listed quarantine facilities.
The DOT expressed gratitude for the hotel industry’s continued support in turning their AEs into isolation and quarantine facilities amid the continued surge in COVID-19 cases in the NCR and surrounding provinces.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the DOT is one with the entire tourism industry to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are guided by our Bayanihan spirit, which has strengthened us since the onset of the pandemic, in working together with the private and public sectors towards our nation's recovery,” Puyat said. —Rosette Adel
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