[File Photo]

More hotel staff in Suva will be able to return to work.

This is after Health Ministry announced they will be using several hotels and motels in Suva as quarantine facilities solely for primary contacts of new cases.

Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association Chief Executive, Fantasha Lockington says they will need more people to work in shifts.

“It allows the hotels to bring back a lot more staff so that we have got more people in the hotel that can circulate through the hotel. You have people work in shifts and the shifts have to be changed so you will have to bring more people.”

Lockington says the revenue generated will be used to cover operational costs.

“These are rates that are affordable to the ministry so that they can keep their quarantine people in. You will find that it is such as low rate that it can just pay the staff and operational cost. Sometimes it’s provided at under cost because they understand what the budget is.”

Lockington says they continue to work closely with the Ministry of Health.

Some hotels in Suva will be used to accommodate those who are in quarantine or isolation.