KUCHING: The government must take into consideration the centralised air conditioning system in most hotels especially those of three to five-star ratings before making a decision to turn some of them into quarantine centres, said an engineer Alex Ting.
He said the problem with centralised air conditioner was that some of the air from each room or corridor was sucked into the conduit and recirculated to all the rooms after passing through the cooling tubes.
“You can imagine, the virus (Covid-19) from infected persons could be sucked and circulated, thus infecting the whole building or hotel.
“This is the reason why cruise ships have such high infections,” he said in a statement yesterday, responding to a recent news report that seven hotels in Sarawak had responded to the government’s call to be turned into quarantine centres.
Ting said it would be more appropriate to opt for two-star hotels that used separate units of air conditioners. He hoped that the authorities especially the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas would take the matter seriously.
On Friday, Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) Sarawak chairman Mohd Ibrahim Nordin said seven hotels had responded to the government’s plan to turn hotels into quarantine facilities for people who entered the state starting tomorrow.
He said these hotels had submitted quotations to the National Security Council (NSC) and were dealing directly with the authority.
Mohd Ibrahim said the hotels were in the city centre but he declined to identify them or their rating.
He added that hotels in Sibu and Miri were still considering the move.
According to him, most hotels have closed temporarily since the Movement Control Order came into effect on March 18.