Hotel rooms a Covid-19 isolation option in France

A “rapid and massive” increase in testing for Covid-19 infection will be accompanied by a requirement for self-isolation for those who prove positive, says the government.

People will then have the choice between confinement at home or in another place, such as a hotel room.

If they choose home confinement, those they live with will also have to be confined.

This follows research by medical science body Inserm, which found that such measures were needed to ease strict confinement while avoiding a second epidemic wave.

France is set to do up to 700,000 free tests a week, for those showing symptoms, by May 11. To free up hospitals, people who are infected but without complications requiring hospitalisation, or who are ready to leave hospital but still infectious, may be offered an alternative to going home.

In some cases, a stay in a hotel room could be state-funded.

The large Accor group has been trialling this in some Ile-de-France hotels with the AP-HP Paris hospitals group. This has been aimed at people who tested positive, and are potentially contagious, but without symptoms so far. The group is charging the state the cost price of €30-50/night.

Former French health chief William Dab told France Intera lot of contagious but not seriously ill people have been going home where they are very likely to infect others, especially if they share a small flat.

At the same time, many hotels are empty due to the lockdown.

Other parts of France where it has been tried include Poitiers and Corsica, as well as Perpignan, where the prefecture requisitioned a hotel.

There, they organised provision of three meals a day without physical contact, as well as on-site medical personnel.

The duration of isolation could vary case by case depending on medical opinion, but would typically be two weeks.

People diagnosed in hospital may be tested there. Otherwise, testing by some local medical test labs is possible after obtaining a prescription from a GP.

You should not go directly to a lab, but should call to arrange.