Four Seasons hotel in Manhattan offers free lodging to healthcare workers battling coronavirus
- The five-star hotel on 57th Street is offering accommodation to healthcare workers
- Owner Ty Warren said healthcare workers should not have to travel long distances to get to work to fight the pandemic
- Gov. Cuomo thanked the hotel and said he hoped others would follow suit
- He also wants to turn hotels into hospitals to battle the crisis
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The Four Seaons hotel in Manhattan is offering free lodging to healthcare workers battling coronavirus.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the gesture on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon and said he hoped other hotels would soon follow suit.
Cuomo has already said that he plans to turn hotels into makeshift hospitals when the existing facilities in the healthcare system become overrun.
It is unclear if this is what he has in mind for the Four Seasons, or whether it is simply being used to house healthcare staff.
‘The Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street will provide FREE lodging to doctors, nurses & medical personnel currently working to respond to the #COVID19 pandemic. Thank you.
The five-star Four Seasons hotel in Manhattan is offering free accommodation to healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo thanked the hotel in a tweet on Wednesday and said he hoped others would follow suit
‘The first of many hotels we hope will make their rooms available,’ Cuomo said in a tweet.
‘Many of those working in New York City have to travel long distances to and from their homes after putting in 18-hour days.
‘They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate,’ said the hotel’s owner, Ty Warner.
It is unclear which hotels will be turned into temporary hospitals. It is also unclear how many healthcare workers will qualify to stay there, what the criteria is or how it will be manned.
Cuomo said he urgently needs more beds to combat the virus and that he would ‘turn the state upside down’ to find them.
Hotels and college campus dormitories are top of the list.
There are now more than 30,000 cases of coronaviurus in the city of New York and 60,000 across the US.
More than 800 people have died and the peak is yet to come.
The iconic hotel is the first to open its rooms to healthcare workers in the city of New York
The hotel’s owner said hospital staff should not have to commute for long periods of time when they are already working so hard