The New Normal
Covid-19 Health and Safety Recommendations when travelling in Europe & Spain
COVID-19
This year has been unique, we don’t usually face a world pandemic in our lives, perhaps we will need to grow used to it. However, this is nothing new, and strongly present in the sunnah of our Prophet, Muhammad (PBUH), if we are to read about his tradition and recommendations in times of plague.
Whether man-made or naturally occurring, to believers, it is Allah’s decree, Covid-19 is here as a test to us all. It is our responsibility and religious duty to ensure the health and safety of all around us. While perhaps also we may read deeper and obtain hidden teachings in this all., for now, this document is going to stick to the prior, health and safety recommendations for these difficult times in shaa a’ Allah.
To reach and continue into a seamless “normality”, to open up our service and move more freely engaging with a wider local and travelling public, we need to keep our awareness that Covid-19 is still present and is nothing to joke or be taken lightly.
- The measures we must take are not exclusively for travellers but for the general public.
- Social distancing, in general of 1-2 metres is recommended. While this is different if we are face to face, talking enthusiastically, eating, singing or praying, we will ask you to use your common sense to prevent the off chance.
- Masks should be used when this distance is impossible to maintain or you are in the know or thought that you may be infected with Covid-19 in the contagious period. I think that if people have symptoms/infected they should not be self-isolating!
- Avoid sharing toilets or extreme hygiene inside, making sure the toilets we choose to use are duly serviced with a regular hygiene procedure.
- Personal hygiene should be observed especially when using shared water basins or taps, there is soap placed next to water taps for everyone’s safety. It is advisable to wash with soap before and after making wudu. Hygiene gel is provided in most establishments.
- It is wise to use your own prayer mats when praying in any space or mosque.
- The mask should be worn over nose and mouth, except when eating or drinking, this is the latest Spanish LAW!
- It is also advisable to use a mask when shopping, or at coffee bars or restaurants. Most supermarkets and shops have an obligatory mask policy, this is also true for driving, where masks should be available in case the police stop you.
Hoping this is not seen as uninviting, discriminating to travellers or out of measure, we respect everybody’s opinion, but choose to be sensitive and extreme our caution, “to tie our camel” ahead of the worst expectations which we have been witnessing all over the world over the past months.
An initial recommendation to “stay still” not travel has been followed since March by most of us alhamduliLlah and this has been effective to reach the point where we are now when the statistical curves of the disease are touching base near to zero in many parts of the world
In Spain we are slowly reopening with adjustments to the law being made to assure minor risk involved in retiring to our normal lives. Restaurants, commercial malls and cinemas are re-opening their doors with consistent Covid-19 measures. A new scientific unit of certification recently certified “Lanjarón” in the Alpujarra, which is one of our hometowns, as the first touristic destination to be “Certified Covid-19 Safe”. This certification applied over the whole village due to its integral policy, including one way pavement walking directions as well as adjustments in all of their local services and establishments, whether private or public. We hope the rest of Spain will soon feel equally “safe”.
Covid-19 can cause severe health stress or even death for many of us and our beloved. We, therefore, need to agree/conform to “a norm” and maintain a basic standard through which we can all feel safe and comfortable within this“new normality”. This standard is based on some simple yet effective principles, which you can take further into the personal areas of your own life to be more cautious or not but while in public or shared private spaces or vehicles we will ask you to maintain as strictly as possible.
We trust Allah for Khayr and blessings from all situations and their outcome.
The intention behind these guidelines is to ensure that everyone feels safe and comfortable, being aware that there is a large discrepancy in the individual response to the end of the lockdown