CNN travel | Today’s hotel is tomorrow’s coronavirus hospital

(CNN) The Ayre Gran Hotel Colón is a four-star, 365-room design hotel in downtown Madrid close to Retiro Park and one of the city’s largest hospitals.

Earlier this year, its guests enjoyed newly renovated rooms, stained-glass windows, serene gardens and even an onsite art gallery. For the past week, however, the hotel’s two towers have been transformed into a medical facility to treat patients with mild cases of coronavirus.
With global travel at a standstill — and millions of people projected to contract Covid-19 in the coming months — governments around the world are looking to otherwise closed hotels as a way to alleviate stresses on overburdened health systems.  —more—