A rare glimpse inside Calgary's COVID-19 isolation ~~hotel~~ facility, as travellers share concerns

>www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-hotel-quarantine-covid-19-isolation-public-health-1.5900876

During his 14-day mandatory stay in Calgary's COVID-19 isolation hotel, Angelo Vanegas says he couldn't get food for up to 15 hours at a time overnight, was penned up in a small room and had to "beg" to get medical treatment for an infection. He says he felt ignored, disrespected and mistreated.

Another traveller, Mitch Beaulieu, said it seemed to him like a sci-fi thriller. Police and security officers escorted him from Calgary's airport to a van with blacked-out windows and took him to a hotel with hallways lined with plastic. There, he was greeted by people wearing hazmat suits, gloves and face masks…

While the Public Health Agency of Canada won't say how many people have stayed in the Calgary facility — or even where it is, in order, it says, to protect the privacy and safety of travellers — 5,030 people have been lodged in the sites countrywide as of Jan. 24…

Travellers quarantined at the Calgary site must stay in their rooms for 23 hours and 45 minutes every day, says Vanegas. He provided photos of the floors and walls outside his fifth-floor hotel room, some of which were covered over and taped with plastic.

A security guard is stationed next to the elevator to ensure no one leaves — unless they are venturing outside for their daily 15 minutes in the hotel's courtyard.