Government-owned hotels being used “field hospitals” or those providing accommodation for persons under observation or for other government-authorised purposes are exempt from the order.
Hotels that already have guests are allowed to remain open, but not allowed to accept any more guests. Once the last guest checks out, the hotel operator must close down immediately without accepting any further guests and inform officials.
Hotels that still have guests must inform officials of the number of guests and their names so that officials can arrange for the guests to be screened for the virus.
Officials must be notified if any guests fall ill.
The order warns that breach of the order violates Section 12 of the Communicable Disease Act 2015, which may incur up to one year in in prison or a fine of up to B100,000, or both.
The order notes that the it will come into effect tomorrow (Apr 4), but does not stipulate a time. Normally, in such cases, government orders come into effect at midnight at the start of the day. To avoid confusion, this is normally reported as 00:01am of the day the order comes into effect.