Enjoy the carnival without getting COVID-19. How to do it?

Andrés Calero and his family decided to advance the carnival holiday by a week to avoid encountering the crowds of the date. Although they enjoyed the beaches, Andrés assures that he has not ceased to feel concern about the possible contagion. “In the restaurants we were not overcrowded, but there was no social distancing either,” he says.

Andrés’s nervousness is understandable because, throughout the pandemic, holidays have been accompanied by waves of infections. This, added to the decision of the National COE of remove restrictions and allow 100% capacity in open spaces for this carnival, it can scare the tourists. However, there are alternatives to enjoy these days off and avoid getting COVID-19.

Epidemiologist Andrea Gómez recommends that families who are going to visit crowded places must necessarily wear a mask. in open placeshe warns, you can be without a mask as long as you keep a distance of at least two meters from other people.

Likewise, if during the days of the holiday you perceive some symptom that may be related to COVID-19, it is recommended to avoid exposing other people and isolate yourself until an effective diagnosis is made to confirm or rule out the presence of the virus.

Isolate yourself, get tested and notify. A detailed guide on what to do if COVID-19 is suspected

about permanence in hotelsthe specialist points out that spaces can be ventilated for greater protection, because if they are kept closed, the air recirculates and there is a greater probability of contagion.

Natural ventilation, the use of alcohol, hand washing with soap and water, and avoiding removing the mask in closed places with people who leave the community are some of the measures recommended for this carnival.

For the typical activities of this festivitylike carnival games, the specialist recommends avoiding playing with strangers, as she assures that approaching others is risky, mainly when their vaccination status is not known or how they protect themselves from the virus.

As for children, it recommends that they stay in their family nucleus and carry out the different activities alluding to the date with the people with whom they live. It also urges precautionary use of the mask and keeping vaccination up to date.

On tourist spaceswhere crowds become inevitable, Gómez suggests that not being part of them and maintaining distancing and biosecurity measures is the responsibility of each person.

“Unfortunately at this time there are no measures that the authorities have taken; there is no traffic light and 100% responsibility is being given to the population”, he highlights.

Advance of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador, live

Hoteliers have biosecurity plans

If you’re going out of town, check to see if the hotel you’ll be staying at has a biosecurity plan. Julio Enrique Meza, administrator of a hotel located in San Clemente (Manabí), designed one for this holiday.

All the employees of your establishment have the reinforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine and weekly PCR tests are performed. In addition, they have adapted open spaces and shifts for the feeding of the guests.

For this holiday, Meza comments, all the rooms are already reserved and, if there is any eventuality regarding the virus, they have a contingency plan.

This provides the Isolation of all personnel with suspected contagion. “If there is a contagion in any of the employees, we are all obliged to isolate ourselves and find a way to continue serving guests, but with as little contact as possible,” says Meza.

In addition, according to the plan, it will be used double mask and the food will be delivered to the balcony of the room or to the door without contact with the waiter. One of the additional measures related to the issue is the closure of facilities, but already in a very extreme case, he emphasizes.

Jorge Benítez, president of the Esmeraldas Chamber of Tourism, says that in this province around 6,000 families live directly from tourism and that COVID-19 has not given their businesses a break. “Water does not wait, electricity does not wait, banks do not wait. We have to find a way to continue to keep our jobs,” he says.

Although they hope it is an economic and tourist reactivation, Benítez is skeptical about the idea of ​​having the same number of visitors prior to times of pandemic. “Before, more than 70,000 people came to the province, he comments, and today, with optimism, we aspire to reach 15,000 ″, he says.

Benítez suggests that tourists verify that they are not infected with the virus before leaving on a trip. “We prefer that they stay home if there is suspicion of having COVID-19. It is everyone’s responsibility to take care of oneself and take care of others, ”he indicates.

Another wave after the holiday?

After overcoming the great wave of infections caused by the omicron variant, the curve in the country has a downward trend. However, there are still many confirmed cases. Currently, almost the same number of infections are registered daily as when we were at the top of the wave of the delta variant.

This tells us that the virus has not stopped circulating. According to the epidemiologist Gómez, we still maintain a high number of daily cases, as well as a positivity of 60% when the WHO recommends that, to keep the virus under control, it should be 5%.

To this he adds that “If there is no individual care, it is possible that we will again see an increase in cases after the holiday.”

The expert also specifies that “the population is still susceptible to illness”, since the percentage of the administration of reinforcements barely exceeds 20% of the population.

“If we want to prevent what happened in January from happening again in March, it is very important that Let’s maintain biosecurity measures and learn from the mistakes of the past. If we think we are infected and have symptoms, we should avoid meeting other people and get a diagnostic test, ”he recommends. (I)