Spain’s Madrid-based hotels offer hospitals 9,000 extra beds for Coronavirus-infected patients

Around 40 Madrid-based hotels have collaborated to offer the capital’s overburdened hospitals around 9,000 beds to cope with the increasing number of people diagnosed with Coronavirus (COVID-19) requiring hospitalisation. The number of COVID-19 cases in Spain now tops 14,500. The majority of people diagnosed with the disease are based in Madrid, of which 491 are in critical condition and in intensive care.

According to Spain’s Ministry of Health, the number of patients requiring hospitalisation is expected to increase in the next few days, as the disease peaks. To prepare for the predicted influx of patients, Madrid’s health authorities have been working with the public authorities to carry out inspections and prepare the most adequate hotels to receive patients.

Hospitals are expected to start transferring non-critical patients to the most viable hotels this week. Ayre Gran Hotel Colón, with 361 rooms, is just one example of a hotel opening its doors to hospitals to help deal with the increasing number of Coronavirus cases.  Located just 300 meters from Madrid’s Gregorio Marañón hospital, it will provide hundreds of beds to deal with non-critical cases.

The city’s hotels are also opening their doors to COVID-19 patients who need to self-isolate and have nowhere to go, or prefer to be treated away from home. Hotels across the capital have also been providing accommodation for the country’s armed forces that have been drafted in to help fight the battle against the virus.