The advisor of International Affairs of the Presidency of Paraguay, Federico González, confirmed yesterday at a press conference that “in the next few hours” the first group of Paraguayan footballers will be repatriated and will be in their quarantine at the “health hotels”.
Since yesterday, the Paraguayan government has 11 hotels enabled for returnees, as well as positive cases of coronavirus or people who have been in contact with an infected person to comply with the quarantine, although accommodation costs will be borne by the guest, unlike in military and police shelters.
Returned footballers will take advantage of this “health hotel” modality, with which the Executive It also hopes to give a boost to the hotel sector after the break and the losses suffered by the health quarantine.
“In the next few hours we will be receiving the first group of professional Paraguayan footballers who are abroad and who will return complying with all the requirements and who will also stay in a hotel,” González said.
Returned players, whose number is unknown at the moment, will pay their expenses and those of their families during their stay at the hotel, which will last for the 14 days that the quarantine lasts.
For the repatriation of the players, the Government is working with the Paraguayan Football Association (APF) and with its sports director, the exporter Justo Villar, according to González.
He also insisted that work is being done on the return of “professional soccer players who are anywhere in the world, not only in Argentina” and advanced that the first group that will arrive does not come from the neighboring country.
The APF already announced on Tuesday that the repatriated footballers, many of whom are “with their contracts expired and without any employment link” in the countries where they resided for work, would join the Hotel Salud program.
All persons staying during their quarantine in these establishments they must stay the 14 days in their room, without visiting the common spaces, and they will also have to clean their rooms, although there will be a laundry service every five days for personal and bed clothes.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, all included in the rate established by each hotel, will be deposited at the door of the rooms to avoid contact with the staff and prevent possible contagion.
Paraguay registers to date 740 people positive for coronavirus, of which 11 have died and 182 have recovered, according to data from the Ministry of Health.