After thinking about it a lot, Sonia, 39, has made a decision about Christmas.
He lives in Barcelona, and will return to Marbella to see his father, 70, with heart problems.
You will take some precautions.
He will spend an isolated week, without going to the office or meeting people, and a day before leaving he will have a PCR thanks to his private insurance, which gives him the results in a few hours.
"Even so, I'm shit," he confesses.
You know that the test is not an absolute guarantee, that you will have to travel by plane - where very few infections have been documented, but some do occur - and at home you will follow all the precautions recommended by the authorities.
Like Sonia, there are thousands of Spaniards who do not want to give up seeing their loved ones this Christmas and are considering how to do it in the safest way possible.
The perfect way to avoid the risk of a third wave of the pandemic would be to skip Christmas.
Remain alert, without exceptions, without extra-domiciliary meetings, without eliminating perimeter confinements or curfews.
Although the general recommendations are expected to be announced this week, previous conversations between the government and communities make it quite clear that this is not going to happen.
Almeida and Villacís differ on the crowds of the weekend in Madrid
The difficult return home at Christmas when PCR is worth more than the plane
The message of almost all public health specialists, therefore, is: “Try to avoid dinners and meals with non-partners, or restrict them as much as possible;
if you want to see your family, it should not be around a table, but in the open air ”.
Everything else is shortcut.
But the perfect is sometimes the enemy of the good and it is not known to what extent it can be useful to send only this restrictive message, without additional advice, when thousands of families are going to walk these shortcuts this holidays.
There are more or less safe ways to do it: it is not the same to return home after a few days of self-isolation than after an intense social life, with or without proof.
Crowds in Carrer del Carmen, next to Puerta del Sol, in Madrid on November 30.
On video, the aerial images of the city center last Sunday, seen from a drone.
CALVO (VIDEO: MUNICIPAL POLICE)
The latter generates controversy and the truth is that the information transmitted by the authorities does not help to establish a position.
The Popular Party has demanded that Health in Parliament be carried out PCR on those who are going to move.
At the moment, none of the autonomous communities that governs has implemented this measure.
Yes, the Canary Islands will do it, the autonomy with less incidence, which is preparing protocols to test canaries who return home for Christmas.
The Balearic Islands, the second with the best data, will pay for voluntary tests during the Constitution bridge to those who arrive from the Peninsula and study what to do for Easter, reports Lucía Bohórquez.
The position of the central government, a priori, is not to carry them out in a generalized way.
The Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón, explained in an interview with EL PAÍS that it should not penetrate the collective imagination that tests are a treatment.
Last week, his department sent an email to the autonomous communities with some proposals, which were later leaked to the press.
In the
e-mail he
assured that they did not consider performing PCR on students who return to their usual homes due to logistical complications.
But the committee that studies a battery of common actions throughout Spain has that possibility on the table.
There is a division of opinion among the experts.
On the one hand, there is a fear that someone who takes a test thinks they are out of danger.
This is not the case: there are false negatives and in the period of time between when the tests are done - not everyone has insurance that gives the results of the PCR the same day - and the one who comes home can cause a contagion .
Furthermore, during the incubation period, up to five days before the virus appears, these tests do not detect it.
Nor is any type of test the same.
PCRs are the most reliable tests, even without symptoms, but they are logistically more complicated and usually take longer.
The cheaper and more immediate antigens lose reliability if the person has no signs of the virus.
"But it is also true that in these cases the ability to infect is lower," acknowledges Ana María García, professor of Public Health at the University of Valencia.
José Antonio López Guerrero, director of the Neurovirology group at the Autonomous University of Madrid, explains that some rapid home tests are about to be approved, such as one just authorized by the US Administration, which would be something similar to a PCR, with the difference that in 30 minutes you have the answer and that you do not have to insert a swab deep into the nose, but you can take a sample in a much less invasive way.
There are also some saliva tests.
If they are approved in Spain between now and Christmas, having one just before a meeting would be an acceptable option, in López Guerrero's opinion.
Most of those consulted (half a dozen epidemiologists and virologists) recognize that a test is better than nothing if someone plans to return home yes or yes, as long as its limitations are very clear and precautions are not relaxed, the six emes: mask (use of mask as long as possible), hands (frequent hand washing), meters (maintenance of physical distance), maximize ventilation and outdoor activities (keep windows and doors open as far as is safe and feasible depending on the temperature), minimize the number of contacts (preferably always the same) and "I stay home if I have symptoms, diagnosis or contact".
What Sonia does, who returns to see her father in Marbella, is surely the most sensible thing to do if she is determined to return: a mixture of self-isolation and a test.
“It's all very well for people to limit social interactions to 10-14 days before meetings, but not everyone can.
It would be convenient for companies to promote teleworking whenever possible ”, says Andrea Burón, spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Public Health.
Another limitation to this self-isolation, beyond the fact that employment does not allow it, occurs in families with children.
Quique Bassat, epidemiologist and pediatrician at the ISGlobal health institute, explains that during classes the situation is "quite controlled", since the notification and isolation protocols "work well" when a positive appears.
"But at Christmas these children will be in contact with others, with less control, they will go from one house to another, from grandparents or neighbors because their parents may be working, and you have to be especially careful when they have contact with vulnerable people", points out.
The danger of crowds
The Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón, has made this Monday "an appeal to the responsibility and prudence" of citizens after the agglomerations registered at the weekend in the centers of different capitals, such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Malaga , for Christmas shopping and turning on the Christmas lights.
Calzón has recommended "avoiding crowds" in the streets these days to avoid a worsening of the situation of the covid-19 pandemic in Spain.
"This is not over," he warned.
The truth is that, as Pedro Gullón, of the Spanish Epidemiology Society, tells us, there is not much evidence of how the transmission of the virus works in outdoor crowds.
“There are different gradients.
The images of crowds generate a lot of impact.
It all depends on how many people there are, the security measures and the time spent exposed.
Although moments have been recorded with many people, being outside, when there are measures such as the mask, when contacts occur for a short time, because you are moving, there is no evidence of a huge risk.
The problem is what is accompanied.
If there are many people on Preciados street, it means that there are many people entering stores, and if they do not respect the gauges, that can be more dangerous ”, he explains.
Here the situation changes: they are indoors, it is frequent that many objects are touched that are not disinfected later and the risk of transmission of the virus increases.
Information about the coronavirus
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