What are the best provinces to maintain the distance between towels on the beaches?
The beach where the safety distance can most easily be respected is located in the Almeria town of Vera
With the month of September just around the corner, the summer holidays start for millions of Spaniards. While some unpack their suitcases to return to the routine, there are many who are waiting this weekend to start the most anticipated days of the year, days that will inevitably be marked by the coronavirus pandemic that continues to shake our country.
Although we are used to taking tickets months in advance to get the best deals on the market, the world has stopped and with it our travels. Visitors, nationals rather than foreigners, have found refuge in national destinations and hoteliers rely on them as a source of income.
In this sense, rural tourism, away from the crowds and a priori second option for many at this time, is being the great beneficiary. However, there are those who choose not to give up the coast and try to find quiet areas in which the different security measures decreed to prevent the spread of the virus are respected.
Thus, dressed in masks and with several jars of disinfectant gel filling their toiletry bags, a handful of lucky people are still looking for a holiday destination that is near the sea to enjoy an untypical summer, but how do you choose a beach where you can stay the distance between towels?
The widest beaches on the entire Spanish coastline
The most used method among the beach provinces to determine the width of their beaches is the measurement of the sand that is exposed at low and high tide . According to eltiempo.es, and depending on the measurement of meters of sand at low tide, the ranking of provinces with wider beaches would be: Vizcaya (174 meters), Pontevedra (87 meters), Gerona (25 meters), Murcia and Barcelona ( 15 meters).
At high tide the ranking varies, keeping Vizcaya as the leader, positioning Gerona in second place and lowering Pontevedra to third place.
Another widely used method is to record the maximum and minimum meters of sand available in the specific area. In this sense, the beach where the safety distance will most easily be maintained in 2020 is located in the Almeria town of Vera with a minimum distance of 130 to 160 meters.
For those who flee from the overcrowding of the Mediterranean and choose to spend their holidays in the north of the peninsula, Guipúzcoa and Lugo have beaches that can boast of having the widest measures in terms of width, between 90 and 100 meters, respectively.
Gerona, Barcelona, Malaga and Alicante close the top five of the widest beaches in our country in this sense, ranking of which Pontevedra is out due to the fact that, despite having one of the widest beaches in our country (800 meters ), has one of the narrowest, registering from 5.4 meters of sand to 10.4.
At the other extreme, the one with the narrowest beaches , Galicia takes first place. With a width of between 1 and 5 meters on average, the Galician community has almost half (49.5%) of this interval.
Quite far from this percentage, although occupying the second place, is the Canary archipelago with 12.75%, followed by the Valencian Community (8.82%).
Commissioned by the Ministry of Health and ICTE, the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) issued a report focused on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in beaches and swimming pools . In this document they highlight that "currently there are no data on the persistence of the virus in seawater" and point out that "the main route of transmission is through respiratory secretions that are generated by coughing, sneezing and contact between people".
Thus, the agency highlights the importance of continuing to respect the different security measures decreed to control the expansion of the coronavirus. Keeping two meters away in and out of the water, avoiding as far as possible huddling with those who are not from our family circle and wearing a mask when entering and leaving the beach are still the keys to prevent possible infections also in holidays.
