30 to 60 hotels serve as SHN facilities at any point in time: STB

DESPITE further easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the government is keeping close tabs on the number of hotels that are designated as stay-home notice dedicated facilities (SDFs).

"The total number of hotels being used as SDFs depends on supply and demand," said Geraldine Yeo, director of Singapore Tourism Board's stay-home notice operations division in a statement.

"There are typically between 30 and 60 hotels being used as SDFs at any point in time," said Ms Yeo in response to queries from The Business Times (BT) regarding hotels being assigned as stay-home notice (SHN) facilities.

This comes following BT's report on Naumi Hotel Singapore and Amara Singapore giving up leisure bookings to make way for SHN guests.

Naumi Hotel had recently notified guests via email that their bookings were cancelled as it had been designated by the government as a SHN hotel to host guests returning from abroad. Amara Singapore, on the other hand, told guests that they "will be contracted with the government from December 2020".

Naumi Hotel also said in the email seen by BT that it cannot determine when it will reopen to the general public "due to the uncertainty of the situation". Meanwhile, BT understands that Amara will no longer be accepting bookings from now till February.

"As part of the multi-agency effort to combat Covid-19, the government has negotiated contracts with hotels to provide rooms for multiple accommodation needs, including as SDFs," said Ms Yeo.

"The government will continue to monitor the evolving Covid-19 situation, and work closely with the private sector to adjust our capacity of SHN facilities accordingly," she said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that Dec 28 will be the start of Phase 3 of domestic reopening. He also said Singapore must reopen its borders - and do so in a controlled and safe way - to preserve the country's status as an international hub.

Mr Lee cautioned that there will be more imported cases, with some risk of these cases spreading the virus to the community. The government will take every precaution to prevent imported cases from triggering a new outbreak, he added.