A French student has been left desperate after being transferred to a 5-star hotel after testing positive for Covid-19 and being told that she has to pay €100 a night for the accommodation.

The young woman told The Malta Independent that she arrived in Malta in January as an Erasmus student. She was supposed to return to France on 10 July but she tested positive for Covid-19 on 6 July.

The student immediately started trying to find new accommodation because her current rent agreement was set to expire on the day of her supposed departure.

“I made many phone calls to find a new quarantine place, even though I was tired from the symptoms I had. During these three days, all the numbers I was advised to call to find a solution, in turn gave me a new number. No one helped me or told me that I was not allowed to change my accommodation. It took my landlady calling to get things sorted out one day before I ended up on the street.”

She was then told that she would be taken to a hotel. “Not just any hotel: The 5-star Corinthia Marina hotel, the place where all the positive tourists are taken to finish their quarantine. So they drop you off here, and then I learn by calling the hotel reception that I have to pay for my quarantine stay. Is this normal? We don't have a choice of where to be quarantined and they take us to the most luxurious hotel in the area. And in the end we have to pay?”

The student said she does not have the money to pay for the €100-a-night room. “We did not choose to have COVID and we are subjected to it like this. My neighbours, who also have Covid, are desperate about the situation and don't know how they are going to get out of it.”

Malta proclaims its existence thanks to tourism, and the country thanks the tourists like this, the student asked?

The health authorities had previously confirmed with this newsroom that the Corinthia Marina is being used as a quarantine hotel for tourists who test positive for Covid-19.