Spain closes all hotels

SOS International encourages family members of Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Finns admitted to hospitals in Spain to return home.

The Spanish government has announced that all hotels, guest houses and bed-and-breakfasts, etc. must close. This is of consequences to guests at the hotels who will be asked to leave their hotels in the next few days.

SOS International has already ascertained that it is not possible to make new bookings at hotels in Spain, a fact which may be of significant consequence to relatives of sick or injured Nordic travellers.

- We have to encourage relatives who are accompanying admitted patients to return home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, in the present circumstances, we cannot assist in finding hotel accommodation, says Karin Tranberg, Executive VP of the Travelcare Division, SOS International.

At the same time, SOS International anticipates facing significant challenges in line with patients, whose treatments have been completed, being discharged from Spanish hospitals. It appears that will not be possible to accommodate these patients at hotels until their repatriation has been arranged.

- It would appear that the Spanish hospitals will not offer to keep patients, whose treatments have been completed, says Karin Tranberg and emphasises that the repatriation of sick and injured travellers is already very much challenged by the corona crisis.

- Naturally, we are doing everything we can to help repatriate these patients. We will have to use air ambulances instead of scheduled flights which will make repatriation more expensive than usual; however, we must use all means available to ensure that Nordic patients are safely repatriated, says KarinTranberg.

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