ALERT Level 3 is certainly going to hurt again many hotels and restaurants just starting to recover from the recent Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions, although industry leaders said they understood the necessity of the government’s decision.
Malacañang announced over the weekend the reimposition of Alert Level 3 in the National Capital Region from January 3 to 15, as Covid-19 cases suddenly spiked with families and friends having gathered over the holidays.
In a Viber message to the BusinessMirror, Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) Executive Director Benito C. Bengzon Jr. said, “The return to Alert Level 3 will affect the operational capacity of hotels, particularly for restaurants and social events, which will affect revenue streams.”
He added, “Meantime, PHOA will continue to strictly abide by the guidelines set by authorities under Alert Level 3. It is important for all to follow minimum public health standards so we can help control the [Covid] situation.”
Under Alert Level 3, venues for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE), parties and other social gatherings, as well as restaurants are allowed to operate at a maximum of 30 percent of the venue’s indoor capacity for fully vaccinated individuals and 50 percent of its outdoor capacity, as provided in the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF’s) Alert Level System guidelines as of November 18, 2021.
For his part, Eric Teng, president of RestoPH, said it was “hard to say” how much the industry or his members would lose in terms of potential revenues from the dining restrictions under Alert Level 3. “Fortunately, our industry had a good a November and December. We don’t believe the current problem will be a long-term one. We expect things like this (changes in alert level status) will occur every now and then.”
In fact, the surge in Covid cases was expected by RestoPH because of the family gatherings, thus the need to change the region’s alert level status. The group, he added, “support(s) the IATF change of alert level to 3. We hope the public can take this opportunity to get vaxxed or boosted as soon as possible to help protect our families and communities from any potential surge.”
Bar staff found Covid-positive
As this developed, Berjaya Makati Hotel issued a public apology on its Facebook page for its lapses that allowed one of its guests, Gwyneth Ann Chua, to skip her quarantine and go to Kampai, a bar and restaurant in Poblacion, Makati to party with friends, just a day after arriving from the US.
Without naming Chua, hotel management said it “sincerely apologizes for failing to stop the guest from jumping her quarantine. This was the only incident of its kind in the nearly two years that we have served as a quarantine hotel, and we will make sure that it is the last….” It added that the establishment is “fully cooperating with all government agencies that are conducting their own investigations.”
In a letter on December 29, 2021 to May Ramos, head of the Tourism Frontline Services of the Department of Tourism-National Capital Region, Den Sabayo, Berjaya Assistant Front Office Manager, said Chua “had her quarantine with us since Dec. 22 and declared positive on Dec. 27th. Just as how we treat all other quarantine guests, we ensure that they follow strict protocols and advise us whatever the result of their swab test. Said result was coordinated with BOQ (Bureau of Quarantine) open and followed up for extraction. Only today they were able to pull her out from Berjaya.”
Also on its Facebook page, Kampai confirmed on December 31, without naming Chua, that she “visited their bar on Dec. 23 from 10 p.m. and stayed until about 1 a.m. the following day.” They added, they “absolutely had no idea that she came from abroad” and was supposed to be under mandatory quarantine.
The bar management said, “A number of our patrons and staff contracted the virus and are now in quarantine because of the situation,” although they failed to provide evidence that these guests and employees were actually infected by Chua. Kampai said they are temporarily closed while its staff was still undergoing testing and self-isolation for a week. They said they provided information and CCTV footage to authorities investigating the Chua case.