The Ministry of Economy has approved up to $5 million for hotels being used to billet doctors and nurses in COVID safe bubbles.

Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has informed parliament that this is the current cost of keeping medical workers in controlled environments where they are safe from exposure to the virus.

“All those personnel, they actually live in a bubble in different hotels. We have people who have been brought in from their homes to stay in hotels. All that expenditure is borne by the government.”

A number of hotel and apartment buildings in Suva alone are housing medical workers living in individual bubbles, with no contact allowed between different teams to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19.