Guidelines released for Guest House and Hotel reopening in the Maldives

Photo Credit: Maldives-Magazine

The Health Protection Agency of Maldives (HPA) has released the guidelines guesthouses and hotels must follow to be able to reopen for business during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The guidelines have been released following the steady recovery of the tourism sector of the Maldives, due to the improvement of COVID-19 cases in the Greater Male area. According to HPA, the sample positivity rate has consistently remained low at a level of less than 5 percent since mid of September 2020. Hence, guesthouses and hotels in the Greater Male’ area are allowed to open for general operations if they fulfill the public health requirements, as well as obtain approval from the Ministry of Tourism (MOT).

The prerequisites for reopening tourist guest houses and hotels in the Greater Male’ area are as follows:

• There must be a designated place for isolation of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among tourists at these establishments. Isolation could be done at a designated guest house/hotel or a designated facility on an island. The place which is designated for isolation must be approved by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
• There must be a designated place for quarantine of close contacts among tourists at these establishments. Quarantine of close contacts could be done at a designated guest house/hotel or a designated facility on an island.
• Medical care must be available at the designated place for isolation with access to a doctor and nurse. There must be a mechanism for daily monitoring of the medical condition of isolated patients.
• There must be designated vehicles to transport COVID-19 cases and their contacts to the designated places for isolation and quarantine. PPE must be available for the crew involved in the transport. There must be a mechanism to decontaminate the vehicle after the movement of a COVID-19 patient or close contacts. 

Along with the above, many other requirements must be fulfilled as well, such as a COVID safe plan must be formulated by the tourist guest house or hotel and submitted to MOT. For more information, visit https://t.co/s2QpufQVGs?amp=1