When a "hospital" hotel becomes  health risk

The Minister of  Health and the Office of the Presidency are dodging questions about the direct hiring of a company with a network of “connections that according to reports makes use of state assets and fails comply with sanitary protocols in providing cleaning and laundry services for hotel-hospitals during the coronavirus epidemic.

So far, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) has refused to answer questions about the hiring which according to La Prensa and people who have been isolated is risking the health . of looking avoid or Covid-19.

The cleaning  of 1,315 hotel  rooms is a vital hygiene service for the confined people, but the report details sloppy cleaning  irregular changing of bed linen, and laundry procedures that fail to meet health protocols

The Minsa pays the hoteliers $15 per night for each occupied room plus 50% of electricity consumption. The rate does not include cleaning or disinfection of rooms or laundry.

These services are handled by Sicarelle Holdings, Inc. –confirmed hoteliers–, which is dedicated to hospital cleaning but for the first time is hired for the laundry service, which means little or no experience in a specialized field due to its sanitary and biosafety characteristics.

According to business sources, the Minsa agreed to pay Sicarelle between $45 and $50 for the daily cleaning of each occupied room – an expense of approximately $1 million a month.

“Confirming thein formation, however, is a difficult task as neither the Minsa nor the Presidency have wanted to give explanations about the hiring, despite the fact that this medium has tried to know it more than a dozen times, since May 25, even invoking the Transparency Law” says La Prensa.

his medium has been able to verify that Sicarelle Holdings, Inc. uses water, light and physical space from at least two public hospitals to provide a questionable service.

La Prensa consulted nurses and patients from different hotels. and found that clothes are washed once a week: every Thursday and Friday they are collected and returned a week and a half later. , in other cases, they go through the 14-day quarantine without receiving clean sheets and some patients had to wash clothes in the bathroom. Others complained that cleaning consisted of mopping chlorine on the floor while surfaces were ignored.

“A patient staying at one  hotel for 20 days, revealed that when she arrived l, she received a room with an unmade bed with a sheet covering the mattress. It was not until the 17th day of her stay that they changed sheets and towels after insisting. “

Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals change their clothes, sheets and towels at least once and up to four times a day, depending on secretions and fluids. For patients at home or isolated, this change and laundry should be, at least once a day, for biosafety said doctor and epidemiologist Felicia Tulloch. She said that the virus can stay up to eight hours in clothing, so extreme care must be taken. Virologist Sandra López Verges I said that the change of clothes should be at least once or twice a day. And if the person coughs without a mask, it is necessary to change it immediately, due to the permanence of the virus in the clothes.

La Prensa said the laundering  was done using for free eater and electricuty   a state hospital facility without proper bio-security controls