HCMC – The HCMC Department of Tourism on July 15 wrote to the municipal government and the HCMC steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control proposing requisitioning tourism lodging facilities as paid quarantine centers for foreigners.

If the proposal is approved, over 1,600 hotel rooms will be used to quarantine foreign workers and experts who will enter the city for work, Nguoi Lao Dong news site reported. The municipal department had worked with the HCMC Center for Disease Control to list 10 lodging facilities, including three- or five-star hotels, for use as paid quarantine rooms. The municipal Departments of Tourism, Health and Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs also reached a consensus on quarantining guests in stages to facilitate medical monitoring. During the first stage, the city will use three lodging facilities and one tourism accommodation complex in districts 1, 5 and Can Gio with a total of 744 rooms, while HCMC will requisition three lodging facilities with a combined 529 rooms in districts 1, 3 and 7 as quarantine rooms in the second stage. Three lodging facilities in districts 1 and Tan Binh with a total of 345 rooms will be requisitioned as quarantine rooms in the third stage. The selected hotels have pledged not to receive other guests during the quarantine period, according to a representative of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.