TEHRAN - Hotels across the central Iranian province of Yazd are ready to be turned into shelters for coronavirus patients and those with mild symptoms, Yazd hoteliers association’s president says. 

 In the health system, there are two sections of hoteling and treatment…. so that hotels, if being well equipped in terms of medical needs and instruments, can also house both for patients and health care staff, ISNA quoted Seyyed Amir Nasser Tabatabai as saying on Saturday.

Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Minister Ali-Asghar Mounesan announced last week that his ministry is ready to help turn certain hotels into shelters for coronavirus patients based on a plan proposed by the health ministry.

Although it isn’t a mandatory plan for hotels and tourist facilities, they are eager to cooperate with the ministry of health in the fight against coronavirus, Tabatabai explained. 

The scheme, however, needs prerequisites such as hotels being properly equipped in collaboration with Iran University of Medical Sciences, he added. 

Some experts say such quarantine hotels could help those who are battling the coronavirus but live in crowded conditions and want to isolate, and for health care workers who do not want to infect their families.
 
The hotel space allows patients to recover from the virus and self-isolate appropriately, minimizing the risk of transmission to others without compromising the quality of patient care. 

Back in June, the head of Iranian Hoteliers Association Jamshid Hamzehzadeh announced that the outbreak of the new coronavirus inflicted a loss of 60,000 billion rials (about $1.4 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) on the Iranian hospitality industry in four months. 

The government has allocated a 750-trillion-rial (about $18 billion) package to help low-income households and small- and medium-sized enterprises affected by the coronavirus.

In July 2017, the historical structure of the city of Yazd, which is the capital of Yazd province, was named a UNESCO World Heritage. The oasis city is wedged between the northern Dasht-e Kavir and southern Dasht-e Lut on a flat plain ringed by mountains. Its historical structure enjoys a very harmonious public-religious architecture that dates from different eras.

The city of Yazd is usually referred to as a delightful place to stay, or a “don't miss” destination by almost all of its visitors. It is teemed with mudbrick houses that are equipped with innovative badgirs (wind catchers), atmospheric alleyways, and many Islamic and Iranian monuments that shape its eye-catching city landscape. The province has an interesting mix of people as well, some 10 percent of whom follow the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism.

ABU/AFM