The more than 25,000 people participating in Glasgow at COP26 (26th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change), from October 31st to November 12th, have already been warned that the control against the transmission of the coronavirus will be redoubled.
The extensive list of rules was released in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. Earlier this month, all those already registered had to rewrite their health declaration and expressly agree to the regulations of the “largest political meeting ever held in the UK”.
The strict sanitary protocol is in part a response to pressure from bodies, governments and residents of Glasgow to make this year’s meeting a virtual one. COP26 President Alok Sharma argues that the gravity of the climate crisis requires face-to-face negotiations.
“We are taking all steps to ensure that the COP is safe for the participants and for the people of Glasgow,” he said.
As Scotland will receive visitors from all over the world, an exception has been made to accept all brands of vaccines used, even if they have not been authorized by the British health authorities.
There are countries, however, that have not yet started their immunization campaigns, and the British government has promised to vaccinate delegates in these cases for free. There were about a thousand requests and, according to the organization, “hundreds” had already received the two recommended doses.
Still, all participants, even if fully vaccinated, must present a negative result of a PCR test done at the latest 72 hours before departure to the UK, complete the tracking form and take a second test within 48 hours of arrival .
To enter the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), the complex on the banks of the River Clyde where the negotiations take place, called the Blue Zone, it will be necessary to carry out daily tests for fast-type coronaviruses.
According to the organization, in addition to the daily tests, the results of which must be shown at the turnstiles, there must be tests by sampling in the places of meetings and conferences.
The recommendation is that anyone who has any symptoms is immediately isolated and performed a PCR test. If the result is positive, you will need to be quarantined for four to ten days and public transport must not be used.
The rules of prevention don’t end there: you will need to keep a distance of one meter from anyone else, “shoulder-to-shoulder measurement”, according to the specifications.
To guarantee clearance, it is prohibited to remove furniture from their seats and there will be markings on the floor where it is necessary to stand in line. The occupancy of auditoriums will be reduced and the same can happen with the duration of some meetings.
Masks are mandatory in covered places, except at negotiation meetings (unless distancing is impossible), offices and during meals. “The guidance and practice of the United Nations recommend that facial coverings be surgical or FFP2”, says the regulation.
Organizers set up a task force of janitors to sanitize the rooms between each meeting and do heavy cleaning once a day. “We ask participants to finish meetings on time to allow the cleaning teams time to do their valuable work,” says the COP’s code of conduct.
Disrespect for anti-Covid rules can lead to suspensions and even loss of credential, according to the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate) secretariat.
Among the possible infractions are leaving the quarantine prematurely, falsifying the test results or the vaccine certificate and not complying with isolation guidelines in case of suspicion of contamination.
In addition to the necessary measures to comply with the anti-Covid rules, the lack of accommodation vacancies made life difficult for the participants of this COP.
The organization has partnered with hotels and hostels, but two months after the start of the conference, there were no more rooms available. The cheapest options for the 13 nights of the event cost more than 8,000 euros (more than R$50,000), a price greater than twice the usual price.
Inflation also hit properties on rental platforms, such as Airbnb. The cheapest apartments available in September charged, during COP26, 14 thousand euros (more than R$90 thousand).
Even those who anticipated and guaranteed accommodation in advance ended up being surprised: members of Brazilian NGOs reported to sheet who had their reservations canceled earlier this month because the owner had received an offer for quadruple the previous agreed price.
The price explosion made some delegates prefer to stay in Edinburgh, about 50 minutes from Glasgow, by express train.
According to British newspapers, some delegations chose to stay on cruise ships, anchored on the River Clyde. The two vessels already confirmed have, together, more than 5,500 seats.
British health officials fear, however, that housing on ships will increase the risk of contagion from coronaviruses.
Last week, Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said an increase in the number of Covid cases during the COP was virtually inevitable, and that the Scottish government was considering imposing further restrictions.
“There is no public health expert in the world who says there is no risk, in the midst of a global pandemic, of tens of thousands of people flocking to one city. But we will do everything we can to mitigate this,” he told the BBC .
The number of new Covid cases in Scotland stopped falling earlier this month, and is at around 2,500 a day, on average for the past week. The number of daily deaths has been stable for a month, at about 17 per day, on average.
The COP takes place, however, at a time of strong political pressure on the British government to reimpose measures such as wearing a mask and working at home, because of an increase in contagion in England.
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