Three London hotels to be converted into coronavirus isolation centres

Three hotels in London are being converted into Covid-19 isolation centres to accommodate patients who are recovering from the disease.

Interserve Construction, which delivered the first phase of the conversion of the National Exhibition Centre into the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham, has been appointed by the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC) to convert the Holiday Inn Heathrow Ariel hotel (pictured).

The 184-bedroom hotel has been block-booked by the DHSC for use as an isolation and quarantine facility should it be required. It will be used for international visitors to the UK who develop coronavirus symptoms and for Britons who have returned home from countries that have had Covid-19 cases.

The Holiday Inn Brent Cross and the Crown Plaza Stockley hotel are also being converted into isolation units on behalf of the Home Office and will accommodate asylum seekers who exhibit symptoms associated with Covid-19.

Interserve has already converted a hotel and conference centre at Kents Hill Park in Milton Keynes into an isolation unit on behalf of the NHS, which was used to quarantine British citizens who were evacuated from Wuhan in China.

Mark Buckle, divisional director at Interserve Construction, said: "Interserve Construction and Interserve Engineering Services have considerable experience and strong capabilities in delivering significant NHS facilities across the UK, as evidenced by the work we have done on the new NHS Nightingale Birmingham Hospital."

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