De-escalation: when and how can I get together with family and friends?
We have been locked up in our homes for almost 8 weeks to curb the highly contagious coronavirus, a pandemic that has put every society on the planet in check. The economy has been brought to a halt, but social relations have also been affected, having had to replace physical spaces to be shared by digital ones, with greetings and conversations through a screen.
Now, with the de-escalation, it seems that soon we will be able to meet again those family and friends who, like us, have had to shut themselves up in their homes. As published in the Official State Gazette, in the end yes home visits may be made during Phase 1 It will start on May 11 in the province of Alicante, if the situation in the health departments does not worsen.
These authorized meetings will have limits. Maximum of 10 people, which will not apply to people living together. In any case, during these social contacts with non-cohabiting third parties, the safety and hygiene measures established by the health authorities for the prevention of COVID-19 must be respected, regarding the maintenance of a minimum safety distance of two meters or establishing alternative measures of physical protection, hand hygiene and respiratory label.
There was also the question of whether these visits could be made to the risk groups and, apparently, it will finally be possible. According to the BOE provision, «podrán hacer uso de las habilitaciones previstas en esta orden las vulnerable people siempre que su condición clínica este controlada y lo permita, y manteniendo rigurosas medidas de protección. No podrán hacer uso de las habilitaciones previstas en esta orden las personas que presenten síntomas o estén en aislamiento domiciliario debido a un diagnóstico por COVID-19, o que se encuentren en período de cuarentena domiciliaria por haber tenido contacto estrecho con alguna persona con síntomas o diagnosticada de COVID-19.»
Local or provincial meetings?
Although, as has happened on other occasions, these rules can be rethought and modified in the coming days, everything points to the meetings may be held in any municipality in the province where one of the individuals has his habitual domicile. This means, the meeting can be held not only with people who live in the same town, but also in neighbors such as, for example, other towns in the Marina Alta.