What does social distancing look like on a boat ride?
What does social distancing look like on a boat ride? : Tourism trips in this COVID-19 era, have changed; gone are the days when you would have safaris in groups or in big numbers and not worry about your neighbor, whether they have the COVID-19 disease, if you will catch the COVID-19 virus from them or if they have been anywhere that has exposed them to the virus among other concerns. Well the good news is that even with all these concerns, countries have continued to enforce several safety guidelines to be followed by all parties travelling and having safaris to ensure safety of all persons on tourism trips.
In Uganda all persons have tourism trips are required to observe the COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures which are:-
- Wearing a face mask at all times when around people or in public.
- Sanitizing or washing your hands regularly with soap.
- Keeping a 2 meter social distance between you and other persons while on your tourism trip.
- Isolating immediately you experience signs of COVID-19 on top of seeking immediate medical attention.
On top of these SOPs you will be screened for COVID-19 signs and symptoms at all public facilities. The sign and symptoms include but not limited to body temperature above 37 degrees, fever, cough, flu and other signs of illness.
Also to access the country all tourism are required have a negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate and have negative COVID-19 test results for the COVID-19 test done at the point of entry. All these measures though out of the normal they are designed to prevent the spread the spread of COVID-19 among persons in the country and on their safari trips.
Tourists visiting Uganda engage in a number of tourism activities that include but not limited to primate trekking, game drives, boat rides, bird watching, hiking, nature walks, communities tours among others.
Of all these activities boat riding is one of the most sought after activity just after mountain gorilla trekking and game drives and boat rides in Uganda are done mainly in Lake Mburo National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Lake Bunyonyi, Murchison falls National park, Jinja source of the Nile, Lake Victoria and a few other places.
All these places almost on a daily welcome water loving tourists who wish to explore the waters and enjoy viewing the wild and nature on the waters. Usually boat rides are done in groups and before COVID-19, a boat ride could have about 14 to 30 people depending on the capacity of the boat.
But in the COVID-19 each boat ride is required to have lesser people to allow for social distancing which is 2 meters between persons. How this social distancing is achieved or works is by boat rides admitting half the number of people in a boat compared to the usually number.
Basically what this means is that if a boat normally admits 14 people, the boat will admit 7 people for purposes of social distancing; then all the people will be required to sit or stand 2 meters apart from each other the whole time they are on a boat ride. This social distancing will not affect the price of the boat ride but will definitely affect how close you are to the next person on the ride.
The good news is this distance doesn’t affect how you enjoy the ride and what you see on the boat ride; you will still enjoy the ride like you would have before the social distancing. Above all you and all the persons on the boat ride will keep each other safe and free from spreading the COVID-19 to each other.
