Heathrow - Holiday Inn repurposed....
 

https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/17/heath...tine-12254826/

Presumably they have been bumping bookings.

That's interesting. I've heard of hotels "closing" to temporarily become housing for students at nearby university but never for a medical purpose such as this.

Is this the one that is circular shaped? I stayed there once maybe 8 or 9 years ago because I had to be at Heathrow the next morning, and the rate was only $40 IIRC. However, this was the most disgusting Holiday Inn I have ever stayed at. I think putting people there who have the Coronavirus might be putting their lives more at risk if the hotel hasn't changed any since then.

What virus or disease did you contract there?

The people who will be there are in quarantine .

If they are found to have the virus they will be moved to hospital.

Although I can see why block booking a lousy hotel to house quarantined travellers can make sense, I can't quite figure out why the entire staff doesn't just quit rather than potentially put their lives at risk for minimum wage.

I assumed that the hotel staff would have been laid off or transferred to other hotels. Although I'd guess they're making more than minimum wage, whatever their making wouldn't be enough to be working in a quarantine situation.

Maybe I'm wrong. I did re-read the linked article and noted that it didn't mention the hotel staff.

Who's feeding the "guests"? Cleaning the rooms, etc. etc.? Somebody's doing it because it's not the Lord of the Flies in these quarantine situations.

AFAIK the quarantining is simply about limiting the circulation of potentially ill people. It's not about dozens of people magically appearing in hazmat suits to deal with a major problem...

Well, I'm would imagine it's the same people that carry out those types of functions at hospitals. Any orderly/custodian/cook that works at a hospital could handle those tasks in a hotel with no additional training.

And whatever government agency that has the power to quarantine incoming passengers in a rented hotel would certainly have the power to hire an appropriate staff to service that facility.

Presume you are U.S based?
There is no chance the British Government are that forward thinking. We can't even agree that "15,000 new nurses" actually means only an additional 5,000 extra nurses as apparently we gain an extra 10,000 if we stop the current ones leaving. The health secretary is bonkers.

They've definitely hired the hotel with current staff. With some Public Health England staff. British advice is if you've had close contact for less than 15 minutes, you are very low risk of catching the virus.

*DoI: Pessimistic UK Doc ;)

So, the government is able to secure an entire building to house people in quarantine, but they can't manage to find a dozen hospital workers to handle the laundry and cook the food?

Even in a broken system, I find that impossible to believe. And if it is true, I imagine most of the hotel staff will do what craigthemif said and quit.

But, don't bother to respond. I won't be returning to this thread. (Unlike some FTers, I actually mean that.)

I haven't seen much info about cleaning areas previously occupied by folks with the virus. I wonder what kind of cleaning it takes to fully sanitize a room after someone infected has left.