Category: Coronavirus

With the WHO declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic and countries increasingly going into lockdown and closing borders on the one hand, but also signs that the rate of new infections and deaths is continuing to fall in China and South Korea  and of China beginning to return to a new normal, the situation remains fluid.

We continue to monitor the situation daily, but our intention remains to run all expeditions, because conservation efforts must continue and because local partners rely on our support in collecting data and running projects. This includes the next three forthcoming expeditions to the Azores in April, and to Costa Rica and Armenia in May.

For some expeditions this may mean running them with a skeleton local staff and with citizen scientists who are willing and able to attend.

We will continue to update everyone via this blog. Because the situation is so fluid at the moment, we will make final decisions and announcements a few days prior to the start of an expedition only, but will of course continue to supply regular updates via this blog.

There are no confirmed cases of Coronavirus on the Azores so far and the archipelago remains open for flights, with things continuing as normal. Contingency plans have been announced and one report even goes as far as saying that the Azores is one of the safest destinations to go on holiday.

Our plan at the moment is to run the expedition as planned, but please note the following:

• If you are planning to use hand sanitiser or a face mask, please bring your own
• If you are showing any symptoms, do not come on the expedition
• If you have been to a risk area within the last month, do not come on the expedition
• If you belong to a group at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19 (the illness caused by coronavirus), then you may want to consider staying at home too
• Make sure you have adequate health insurance cover (EU citizens should carry their EU health insurance card)
• On the expedition, we will brief everyone on risks and behaviours during the expedition, and follow accepted guidelines

Obviously the situation is quite fluid at the moment. We will keep everyone informed.

 

Much has been written about the new coronavirus already, which we do not need to repeat here.

There is no doubt that the situation is serious and that it is very likely to have a significant impact on the world at large, including our expeditions in 2020 (and perhaps even beyond).

There is a lot of information and speculation about at the moment, ranging from “it’s a hoax” to “we’re all going to die”. Please allow us some time to make sense of it all and come up with a plan.

Our first step is to start this sub-blog to keep everyone informed of our thinking and what it means for our expeditions and policies. Please bear with us and check back here often.

Regards

Dr. Matthias Hammer
Executive Director
Biosphere Expeditions