Coronavirus: the resorts of Mar del Plata have already presented a protocol for the summer season

Guillermo Villarreal

08/11/2020 - 22:05

• Clarín.com
• Society

The Mar del Plata resorts presented a protocol for the upcoming summer season that essentially emphasizes the number of tourists each of them can admit. They propose that their structures not be modified, and that the number of tents and umbrellas be the same, but that the  number of occupants should change . Provide for a pool, changing room and shower, temperature guns, social distancing and chinstraps. The 2021 season is underway even with a pandemic.

There is a long way to go and the same beach concessionaires who worked on the development of the protocol know it: the proposal presented this Tuesday to the Municipal Tourism Authority (Emtur) still has to go through different offices for its implementation. 

You must receive the visa from the tourist entity, then the one from the municipal Health area and if you pass those instances you will still be missing the punctilious magnifying glass of the Province of Buenos Aires, from which last week came the phrase of the Minister of Health, Daniel Gollan , that had in Mar del Plata the effect of a Sudestade beast: he spoke of an "unimaginable" season in this context of growing contagions.

The city's Chamber of Businessmen of Spas, Restaurants and Related (CEBRA) worked with safety and hygiene engineers and submitted a meticulous document, its Covid 19 Protocol .

The document establishes that when hiring a space, tourists sign a sworn statement for the only time stating that they are not reached by the causes to comply with quarantine.

In addition, the protocol does not provide for distance between tents, although they acknowledge that at one point there was talk of leaving a meter between them. For each one , up to eight people will be admitted and at the end of each day they will be disinfected.

The same are the umbrellas, which will have a limit of six people and will be separated from each other a minimum of two meters. The disinfection, in both cases, will be recorded in writing.

The spas that have a swimming pool must respect the use of one person every two square meters. The gyms and children's play areas, according to this initial plan, would operate under similar terms as do the same spaces enabled in the city, which is in phase 4 and allowed openings by decree.  

The use of bathrooms was not enabled in shopping centers, and changing rooms or showers cannot be used in gyms.

But the beach concessionaires propose the use of both according to hygiene and occupation protocols. For example, in the changing rooms one person may stay every two square meters.

Most of the spas in Mar del Plata open every season  from December 1 and a good number begin to receive their clients, even with minimal services, on the long weekend of October.

This year, for the aforementioned dates, the dealers want to put into practice a pilot test, with the protocol in force (the one that was presented now or the one that derives from eventual corrections).

"We met with the mayor (Guillermo Montenegro) the different chambers, we saw him enthusiastic and we are working in the same direction. We know what the situation is, it will be a different season, and we work to provide security based on the protocols," he explained to Clarín Jorge Riccilo, head of CEBRA.

In the Mar del Plata spas there was no pre-sale of spaces this year. "We cannot sell if we do not know what services we are going to be able to offer. People call, consult every day , but we have no values. When we know the final protocol, we will have definitions," said Riccilo, a concessionaire in northern Mar del Plata.   

A member of the chamber, with a spa on the southern beaches, Pablo Pfilapsidis understands that the advantage of Mar del Plata is its 42 kilometers of coastline. "In addition to the spas, service must be provided from north to south," he explains.

Both businessmen, their colleagues and the municipal authorities themselves, beyond the protocol presented, know that it still remains to define how public spaces will be regulated. That space does not correspond to them, but it is their responsibility. It is managed by the State: What will the Bristol photo be like next summer? What will happen outside that narrow limit that separates private beach from public beach? For now, they have no answers.