HOSPITAL (ITY) CARES

During the second wave of the pandemic, the hospitality industry nimbly collaborated with hospitals, turning their facilities into self-contained quarantine and self-isolation centers

- BINDU GOPAL RAO

April 26, 2021, is a date Riddhi Wallia, Founder of Mirabilis Inc is unlikely to forget in a hurry. Just 11 days before, she had left Mumbai to attend to some urgent repairs in her house in Pune. However, that night, her older brother called her saying he had a high fever. Soon her mother and everyone else at home developed similar symptoms and subsequently, the entire household tested COVID positive.

Since she could not go home, she moved to her friend’s home in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb. On 26th April, however, her mother’s condition worsened, and she had to be rushed to Hinduja Hospital where Wallia first moved her to casualty and finally to the ICU as her oxygen levels were dropping.

“Now that I had been in a hospital myself, I could not go back to my friend’s home and could not go home either since it was sealed. So, I checked into Hotel Shubhangan in Khar West. The hotel was like living at home. While I was completely stressed about my mum’s health, the hotel's manager and limited hotel staff looked after me like their family, catering to my every need at any given time, deep cleaning the room every single day, sometimes twice a day, and just being warm and wonderful always,” says Wallia of her 10-day stay. While she needed isolation, hotels are doing much more this time.

HOSPITAL ALLIANCES

When COVID-19 hit last year, hospitality was amongst the most impacted industries in the country. While it had started taking small recovery steps, the second wave once again slammed the brakes, and hard.