Hotels under fire over violating Covid rules

Some hotels that were earmarked as quarantine facilities for returnees are under fire, and risk being suspended by Ministry of Health over violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs).
The Uganda Hotel Owners Association (UHOA), tagging the move as “malicious”, say they are yet to verify whether it is true that their members are violating the SOPs.

Dr Richard Mugahi, the head of Covid-19 quarantine and assistant commissioner of health services at the Ministry of Health, told Daily Monitor yesterday that they are getting many complaints about the violation of the earlier agreed on standards.
Dr Mugahi said beyond the complaints about poor hygiene in the facilities reported by those in quarantine, the ministry has got complaints that some of the hotels operators are mixing the returnees with unsuspecting clients.

The returnees are always kept in those facilities as Covid-19 suspects until proven negative after 14 days.
“Some of the hotels with the easing of lockdown have started admitting other people. We had agreed in the beginning that that should not happen,” he told Daily Monitor yesterday in an interview.
“Others have poor ventilation and we shall also close them. You know some of them keep breaking, maybe the water system has broken down or the hygiene has not been good,” he added.

Suspending the hotels, according to the quarantine boss, “does not mean they will stop operating, they can go back and start doing normal hotel business.”
Dr Mugahi said the circulating media post that 12 hotels have already been suspended is not true.
“We have not suspended any hotels yet. I just mentioned in a meeting on Tuesday that we are going to do an appraisal starting next week. We are going to look at adherence to IPC [infection prevent and control] guidelines and security concerns at some of the hotels,” he said.

Ms Jeanne Byamugisha, the Executive Director of UHOA, when asked whether the hotelers are aware about the concern and the move by the ministry to close non-complying facilities, said it is malicious.
“We have not heard any complaints of any hygiene issues in hotels. This looks like it was malicious,” she said, adding the association leaders will find out more information about the issue of violation of the SOPs.

Verified
Private quarantine. The government on June 17 designated more private facilities to serve as quarantine sites for returnees as the country evacuates nationals who were stuck in foreign land.