Coronavirus: Hotel offer for health professionals ends

Head of the Department of Health Lukas Engelberger thanks the Basel Hoteliers’ Association [Basler Hotelier-Verein] and its members for their support during the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Several Basel hotels made possible around 1,500 overnight stays for health professionals with cross-border commuter status, on behalf of and at the expense of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. This made it easier for them to do their job, especially with overnight shift changes.

During the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Health Basel-Stadt offered overnight stays in Basel hotels to cross-border commuters who work in healthcare. This became necessary after the borders to Germany and France had closed and crossing the border was sometimes more difficult for commuters. To guarantee the response capacity of hospitals and nursing homes at the height of the coronavirus crisis, it was necessary to rapidly make the offer available to staff of healthcare institutions. The offer began at the beginning of March and finished at the end of May. Lukas Engelberger: “I am very grateful to the Basel Hoteliers’ Association and its member hotels for their flexibility and assistance during this time.”

Health professionals from the border regions in Alsace and in the Southern Baden area regularly took advantage of the offer, especially during March and April, usually for one or two nights a week. In total, around 1,500 overnight stays were paid for as part of this offer, for which the canton put up around 150,000 francs. Feedback shows that the rapid and pragmatic provision of overnight accommodation was highly valued and made life much easier, especially for shift changes at night.

Several Basel hotels straightforwardly provided support, coordinated by the Basel Hoteliers’ Association.

In the Canton of Basel-Stadt, 2,400 people from Germany and 700 people from France work in the “medical and healthcare” sector as cross-border commuters.