Coronavirus

First patients are transferred to Meliá hotel

The Meliá Palma Bay Hotel has been converted for medical use. | Govern Illes Balears

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma31/03/2020 15:52

On Tuesday, the regional health service transferred the first patients to be admitted to the Meliá Palma Bay Hotel, which has been converted into a temporary hospital. Five patients were moved from Son Llàtzer Hospital to rooms on the first floor of the hotel. There are 35 rooms on the first floor, all of them for individual use. In total, the hotel has 250 beds on its eight floors.

Patients at the hotel will be those who are asymptomatic; have mild symptoms; require isolation but whose domestic circumstances do not guarantee this; or live with people classified as being vulnerable.

Son Llàtzer is taking care of assigning beds, and the plan is for some twenty health personnel to be allocated to the hotel - doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, porters and administration.

The health ministry says that between the public and private health sectors there is currently sufficient capacity to meet the needs of all patients. If it becomes necessary, however, other hotels will be used. The conversions of two more in Majorca, one in Minorca and one in Ibiza are being prepared.