The South African Indaba Hotel in Fourways has been operating as a quarantine hotel facility for repatriated South African residents.
According to a statement released by the hotel, they were given just a day’s notice to prepare bedrooms and gather resources before welcoming their guests with the last of the repatriated residents arriving on Friday, May 1, 2020.
“We met on Friday for briefings from the South African Government Department of Health and got all of the correct standard operating procedures in place, “said the hotel’s marketing administrator, Crystal Muller.
She added that they had to have on-site healthcare providers to conduct regular testing for Covid-19 symptoms.
On preparing food for the guests, sous chef, Thuli Ntuli said preparing food for quarantine was very difficult because everything had changed.
“When the delivery arrives we sanitise all the packages, even the hands and feet of drivers before they are allowed in the kitchen,” she added.
“The chefs are wearing masks and gloves all the time but we change gloves regularly as we move to another task, for example, if I am buttering rolls, I would wash and sanitise my hands, put on gloves and then start working with the rolls and after that, I will wash and sanitise and put on a new set of gloves to start the next task. “
She added that masks had to be changed three times during a single shift and work stations to sanitized after every task.
“We have always followed these processes but it is now done more frequently.”
The statement stated that the Indaba Hotel staff also had to adjust their skillsets with the banqueting manager, Steve Smit, also becoming the Hotel’s health and safety officer for repatriation groups.
“The most important part of making us Covid-19 ready was conducting comprehensive risk assessments for every process and employee in the workplace. These were then translated into Safe Working Procedures, and we had intense training sessions”, said Smit.
“A great deal of ongoing research is done to ensure that we adhere to world-class protocols to keep everyone safe.”
He added that they required hundreds of litres of alcohol-based sanitiser to clean every surface that guests or staff come into contact with and compliance with set protocols is also strictly monitored.
This repatriation group was in residence at the hotel for 14 days.
