MANILA, Philippines – Mayor Isko Moreno ordered all hotels and motels in Manila to provide free lodging for health workers who are working in the capital amid the Luzon-wide lockdown due to the novel coronavirus.

“[I] do hereby order all the motels and hotels in the city of Manila to accommodate the health workers of 6 hospitals of Manila, including those of the national government hospitals, as their staging area in going to and coming from city hospitals and national government hospitals,” Moreno said in a Facebook live address on Wednesday evening, March 18, as he read his Executive Order No. 17. 

The order will last as long as the national government still includes the capital in the Luzon-wide “enhanced community quarantine.”

Moreno said over 500 rooms will be made available in the following hotels:

• Sogo Hotels – 421 rooms
• Eurotel – 50 rooms
• Town and Country – 60 rooms

Moreno tasked the Manila City Health Office to reach out to hospitals in Manila to link them to the health workers who would need accommodation.

Transportation options have been severely restricted in the government’s bid to enforce social distancing over the country’s most densely populated region, Metro Manila. 

The announcement comes as the city mayor confirmed there are already 9 novel coronavirus cases in Manila as of Wednesday. One of the cases already died, while the other 8 are being treated in various hospitals in the capital, Moreno said.

The country has a total of 202 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, with 7 recoveries and 17 deaths. 

The global death toll, meanwhile, has reached 7,873, with 3,237 of the fatalities in China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau). The number of cases worldwide has risen to 194,000, with more than 80,894 of the infections in China. The virus has spread to at least 150 countries. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com