The COVID-19 quarantine hotels in New York City are stupid.
Anyone staying at one of the city’s quarantine hotels – at the expense of taxpayers – is allowed to bring their weed, which a staff nurse will bag, weigh and distribute for the approved smoking breaks. Cigarettes are also allowed.
The property is designed to provide New Yorkers with a place to recover from the coronavirus without falling ill with family or roommates, or being protected from infection. The city launched the program at the start of the pandemic in 2020 to stop the virus from spreading by keeping people apart.
When The Post visited the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in East Elmhurst on Thursday, one of the guests was standing right outside the hotel entrance puffing from a bong while the staff kept an eye on him from the lobby.
Jonathan Martin, 21, who was holding the orange, cone-shaped bong, said he was asked if he had a pot when he arrived at the hotel on Christmas Day. He said the staff put his supply in a plastic bag, took it from him, and returned it to smoking during three designated 15-minute outdoor breaks a day.
“They allow you to quarantine marijuana, but they don’t allow you to drink alcohol,” said Martin, 21, a coffee shop manager from Astoria and at the hotel, so as not to infect his roommates.
The city is paying to house people infected with COVID-19 at the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel.JCRice
He said a staff member examined his bottle of pomegranate juice to make sure it was sealed and did not contain alcohol.
Martin said he was grateful that he could still smoke.
“It’s nice to relax when I’m alone in a room for five days,” he said.
The East Elmhurst Hotel is operated by the city’s Test and Trace Corps, which is part of the public health and hospital system. The city was unable to raise the costs for the program immediately.
The city once considered Serve drinks To guests who were alcoholics so that they would not turn down the free accommodation.
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A source said that about 65 percent of the roughly 420 guests at the hotel and at a nearby Holiday Inn were cannabis smokers.
The source said nurses had to weigh the pot after some guests claimed their weed was stolen from the holding area monitored by nurses and site managers. The carers must also accompany smokers outside during breaks.
“I find it a pity. Nurses go out into the field to care for patients, that’s not care. Instead of offering help to patients with addictions, they are supported, “said the insider. “Nurses are told that trying to refuse patients from smoking marijuana or cigarettes is part of their job.”
“It’s nice to relax when I’m alone in a room for five days,” said Martin.JCRice
From January 1 through Thursday, there were 732 calls to 911 for LaGuardia Plaza, including 694 for an ambulance; 14 for disputes; and 10 for theft.
The city offers the free accommodations in the hotels for up to 10 days and also offers transportation in auto services or taxis to get there, as well as three meals a day.
The hotel’s nurses monitor the temperature and oxygen saturation of the guests during the day.
A new LaGuardia Plaza guest said the city gave their gluten-containing food they couldn’t eat and sent them home in a car with another recovering COVID-19 patient who refused to properly wear his mask and still seemed to have symptoms. according to a copy of a complaint she wrote and received The Post.
The woman said she did not leave her room for fresh air breaks during her stay as the elevators were always crowded with other patients.
“It really felt more like a corona prison than a health facility,” she wrote.
A spokesman for the Test & Trace Corps. wouldn’t address the woman’s complaints or marijuana use other than saying clinical evaluations were conducted for the guests to determine what assistance they needed.
“We are proud that our hotels have so far provided almost 30,000 New Yorkers a safe place to isolate or quarantine and will continue to offer this important tool as long as the pandemic continues,” said spokesman Adam Shrier.
