El Salvador might not be top-of-mind outside the surfing world but it’s making big strides in the Coronavirus fight. Photo: Courtesy Neil Brandvold
As someone who spends a lot of time there, from my perspective, El Salvador has a chance to lead the world. Among all the doom and gloom scenarios circulating around the COVID-19 outbreak, there is a chance the country triumphs over the pandemic.
Outside of surf culture, El Salvador is a little-known Central American country with a rough past. I’ve called it home for quite some time now. It’s approximately the size of Massachusetts and home to 6.3 million people. In recent years, El Salvador has started to change its reputation in the world community. Positive media, grassroots movements, small businesses, and tourism have flourished here over the past few years. The country has even attracted some world-class interest, such as hosting the final ISA surfing games, a 2020 Olympic qualifier. Record numbers of the million or so Salvadoreans who live abroad are coming home to visit family and discovering that their country has changed for the better.
On March 11, 2020, this all came to a standstill. Before a single confirmed case of the Coronavirus appeared in the country, El Salvador’s government quarantined the entire population. Overnight the beaches emptied and police told surfers to stay out of the water. Once-flourishing bars and restaurants were without patrons, tourists panicked to fly home, and most of the population started wearing face masks. People stockpiled for an apocalypse, suddenly paying very close attention to the new pandemic. While things look dire now, there is a chance that the small, densely-populated nation might have success in avoiding the pandemic all together. But this is how swift, new measures could lead to the best-case scenario for the country:
At 4 p.m. on March 11, Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, issued an order closing the international airport to all incoming travel. Passengers were given the option to quarantine at shelters or fly out of the country immediately. This even applied to those in the air when the order was issued. International land travel was also closed. Anyone who chose to enter the country was given a mandatory 30 days isolated from the general population. As 28 days should be sufficient to prevent the spread of the contagion, any threatening cases of the Coronavirus would have had to enter El Salvador prior to March 11. At the writing of this article, five known cases, mostly from Europe, were prevented from entering the general population of El Salvador. It is unknown exactly how many people entered El Salvador carrying the Coronavirus before March 11, but by March 25 each of those cases should be showing symptoms and by April 8 they should have been recovered.
At 4 p.m. on March 14, Bukele issued an order to close all places people gather. Major events, bars, restaurants, and social gatherings were canceled or closed. Owners complied, doors were shut and patrons turned away. This is the opposite of what happened in Wuhan, China, where the Coronavirus reportedly jumped species. The biggest outbreak in Wuhan happened as a result of a holiday festival. The government knew about the COVID-19 outbreak and still allowed the large, densely-attended festival to take place. It should not come as a surprise that the minor outbreak shifted to a major outbreak a week after the festival.
Efforts like these have helped El Salvador’s fight against the pandemic. Photo: Courtesy El Salvador Press Core
In El Salvador, all events and social gatherings were closed before a single documented case.
At 8:30 p.m. on March 21, Bukele addressed the nation for a second time, announcing strict rules restricting movement and enforcing social distancing. Under a quasi-martial law, all nonessential movement has halted. There are police and military checkpoints on every major road restricting travel between the fourteen states of El Salvador. Many municipalities are sectioned off as well. People are only allowed to travel to the nearest food market, pharmacy, or bank. Only one designated member of each household is allowed to leave the house. They are strongly encouraged to wear a mask, gloves, and sanitize thoroughly before reentering their home. Only people vital to the survival of the country are allowed to leave for work or other responsibilities. Violators are forcibly sent to quarantine camps.
Currently, the in-home quarantine is set for 30 days. As the sun set on the first day, only three cases of the virus in the general population have been reported. These perhaps draconian measures come ahead of almost all other nations with exponentially more outbreaks in the general population.
COVID-19 infects clusters of people. It is passed easily but the pattern of infection is still limited to direct contact with a contagious person or contact with a surface that an infected person has contaminated. The Diamond Princess cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean is a perfect example of a closed environment without isolation controls. Some 3,700 people were trapped with the virus with no contagion contamination controls. It is essentially the ideal breeding grounds for the virus. In such an environment, where over half the population on board are in the highest risk group from the virus, 19 percent developed symptoms and one percent died.
Like the cruise ship example, El Salvador is densely populated and has a large elderly population. But unlike the cruise ship, Bukele and the government understand the dangers of the virus if people do not isolate. Following the data from the Diamond Princess, numbers would be catastrophic and cripple the small country. The medical system could not handle 1,190,000 cases nor would the country like to see 63,000 deaths, a similar figure to that of El Salvador’s infamous twelve-year civil war. So staying six to eight feet from all other humans, avoiding common surfaces, avoiding touching your face without washing your hands is a really good idea.
Now El Salvador is waiting. We are about to see the sun rise on the third day of the self-quarantine. To this point, there have been just three cases confirmed in the general population. Those three cases could easily become thirty or even 300 within the next few days. However, with quick responses and empty roads, experts could track the clusters of outbreaks and they could be contained at those levels, allowing only a fraction of viral transmissions compared to anywhere else in the infected world.
El Salvador could succeed in flattening the outbreak curve right now and is clearly ahead of it all when compared to most other nations. The low number of cases combined with the thirty days forced isolation of all human clusters within the general population could be sufficient to let the virus peak and disappear with minimal further outbreaks. In other words, the government in El Salvador is listening to scientists, at least when it comes to COVID-19. The swiftness with which Bukele took the country into isolation, home quarantine, and rapid response could be the key to winning a silent war.
Tyler Trafas is the owner of One Wave Surf and El Salvador Retreats. He lives half the year in El Salvador.
