Marbella and Covid-19

COVID-19 (acronym for coronavirus disease 2019), also known as coronavirus disease, is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It was first detected in the Chinese city of  Wuhan in December 2019. TheWorld Health Organisation declared this disease pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Transmission of this virus occurs through small drops emitted when talking, sneezing, coughing or breathing, which when released by a carrier (who may have no symptoms of the disease or be incubating it) pass directly to another person through inhalation, or remain on the objects and surfaces surrounding the emitter, and then, through the hands, which pick it up from the contaminated environment, come into contact with the oral, nasal and ocular mucous membranes, when touching the mouth, nose or eyes.

It produces flu-like symptoms, including fever, dry cough, dyspnoea,  myalgia  and  fatigue. In severe cases it is characterised by pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis and septic shock leading to death in about3% of those infected.

Symptoms appear between two and fourteen days, with an average of five days, after exposure to the virus. Contagion can be prevented by frequent hand washing, or hand disinfection with alcohol gel, covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, either with the sunken part of the arm opposite the elbow or with a handkerchief and avoiding close contact with other people, among other prophylactic measures, such as the use of masks.

Marbella is a town that lives mainly on tourism,  so both the local authorities and its inhabitants have been very aware of the situation from the beginning and have taken different  measures to overcome this pandemic as soon as possible.

The Marbella Town Hall started to disinfect hundreds of kilometers of public spaces on a daily basis from the first days of confinement using  a special vehicle equipped with an atomiser that disperses a non-irritating  sanitising product for people.

In addition, the City Council has set up an operation consisting of 300 people covering 24 hours a day, acting on urban furniture, buses,  containers, municipal markets,  as well as in the Costa del Sol Hospital, health and ambulatory center and the courts.

All these efforts  are aimed at reducing the spread of the virus and making Marbella into a safe environment for  this disease in order to continue to be  a world reference in terms of tourist.