No Cost/Low Cost Hotel Rooms for Front-Line Health Care Workers

Sacramento

A newly implement program will provide doctors, nurses and other critical front-line health care workers in California—who have exposure to or test positive for COVID-19—access to no-cost or low-cost hotel rooms.

Members of the new California Health Corps will be eligible to participate in this program. Members include health care professionals with an active license, public health professionals, medical retirees, medical and nursing students, or members of medical disaster response teams in California who have signed up to help address the COVID-19 surge.

According to the governor’s office the new program will prioritize health care workers who come in direct contact with or are suspected of having direct contact with COVID-19 patients or who test positive for COVID-19, but do not require hospitalization.

By providing hotel rooms in proximity to medical facilities, health care workers can avoid potentially spreading the virus once leaving their shift by selecting to stay in one of the pre-identified hotels across the state.

“California is fighting to protect those who are protecting us,” Governor Gavin Newsom explained noting, “Health care workers are the heroes of this moment.”

As California ramps up its workforce to meet the COVID-19 demand, it is at the same time strengthening efforts to help keep workers’ families safe by providing hotels as temporary housing options so front line workers do not risk taking the virus home to their loved ones.

Beginning Friday April 10, California Health Corps workers are able to make reservations through the Department of General Services (DGS) CalTravelStore.

The state has already identified 150 hotels that have opted in to provide discounted rates, and more hotels are encouraged to sign up. Hotels interested in participating in offering discounted rooms to health care workers may email covid19lodging@dgs.ca.gov.

DGS is prioritizing the addition of hotels online that are located in counties with high population density or have high numbers of COVID-19 positive test results, including: Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Orange, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Diego and Fresno.

This program is being funded in part through FEMA’s disaster relief funds and is also available for local governments to offer to their health care workforce.

For more information on the state’s response to COVID-19, visit covid19.ca.gov.