Important Correction Note – 28/May/2020:  “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines warning that antibody test results can have high false-positive rates and should not be used to make decisions about returning people to work, schools, dorms or other places where people congregate”. Given the CDC’s last advice, it is clear for Eleonora Escalante Strategy that serological testing can´t be used when it comes to planning for economic-educational recovery. Please take notice. Serological testing can´t be used because it is inaccurate, and I am correcting all my episodes related to Coronavirus testing accordingly.

“Chinese Panda” an aquarelle from the collection Baby Animals. Size: 7 inches x 5 Inches. Handmade with love on Fabriano 5 Paper 210 GSM. If you wish to buy it click https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eleonora-escalante

I wish you a beautiful weekend. Before proceeding further, let me edit a paragraph from yesterday´s publication.

An explanation for yesterday´s post. Under the second paragraph with the title “Wonder Woman Strategy”, I wrote that one of the adjacent measures to keep the coronavirus away is cleaning: “To kill the virus (as cleaning our surroundings and sanitizing ourselves a lot with sterilization supplies like bleach, alcohol gel, soap water, disinfectants, Lysol, etc)”.

Let me explain in detail what I meant by writing this last idea. We must try to clean the surroundings with certain elements, and ourselves with other supplies. Bleach diluted with water, Lysol, or strong disinfectants can be used in surfaces, floors, and objects, but these can hurt our skin. To keep our hands tidy please use “only” water and soap, or alcohol gel whenever you are not near a toilette or a bathroom. Do not use strong heavy-duty detergents on your skin that can harm you (particularly be extremely careful to keep these potent solutions, as bleach, far away from your children).

Territorial organization. In addition, I wish you to consider (as a leader) to re-open your territories by geographic zones as soon as your authorities approve it. Those places where there has not been any case of Coronavirus casualties can start to work under the “wonder woman strategy”. Then petit a petit, you can test in other regions which have less density population. The last ones to open should be the most populated. Keep in mind that if corona cases start to rise to a point that by projecting the next 14 days, the health centers’ capacity will smash or won´t be able to be managed by your own health authorities, then the seclusion strategy has to be applied again.  Keep in mind that, please. This is a dynamic strategy. It has to change or adjust depending on the number of infected cases that are registered daily, that is why the testing in your companies or working facilities is key when opening the economies. The bottom line is how to manage the number of infected in a way that does not saturate the health centers. I recommended to the private sector (particularly huge corporations) to prepare your own “in-house” Emergency Clinic, because it may happen that will be needed. At least at the kick-off phase.

How to apply the wonder woman strategy into our economies? Today´s post is just to illustrate it with examples.

As usual, we will use Salvadoran examples that may be applicable to every single country in the world. The first one reveals a re-starting strategy for a corporate office center or multiple office facility complexes.  The second one will show you the way to re-start the grocery markets safely. And the third one will convince us that by diversifying our transportation paradigms, we will be safe.

1. 1. An Office Center starts again. When I was on the job for the World Bank in El Salvador, I labored in a complex called World Trade Center San Salvador (WTCSS). This is a complex of office buildings. It consists of 4 towers: two of 8 floors, the Torre Futura of 20 floors, and the Quattro building with 12-floor levels. The WTCSS corporate center gathers more than 100 high-respected tenants, including private local companies, international and multinational subsidiaries for El Salvador, worldwide cooperation agencies, embassies, and financial entities, Let´s say that  3,500 people are working in the complex daily plus all their visitors or clients.  When the WTCSS decides to return back to operate,  it is advisable to decide as a whole about how to keep the recommended population density inside the complex, and how each tenant will impulse its own Coronafree measures. The imagination is the limit in relation to how to sort out the virus. Of course, as a complex, the WTCSS will have to establish maximum protocols of corona free safety to the tenants, and each tenant will have to comply with them. An emergency clinic with a medically trained team, three beds, and its respective ventilators will be on point for the whole WTCSS population. Different working schedules will be adapted in order to keep “inside limited mobility”, particular attention will have to be given to the elevators system, which will operate each ride with a max of 5 people, instead of 15. The usage of emergency stairs will be practiced,  keeping social distancing in between people.  Some offices will work Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Other offices Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. The schedule of entrance will be different for each office, some will enter at 7 am, others at 8 am, others at 9 am meanwhile others at 10 am. And the dejeuner/exit schedules will also change accordingly. All the employees at each office will be tested during the first 2 days (a serological test which gives the result in 15 minutes), then every week during the first month. Every 14 days afterward. The WTCSS authorities will hire the sanitary squad team reinforcement to conserve the complex in tidy and sanitized conditions, meanwhile, each office tenant will do its own cleaning too. The rules of protective gear will apply for all (masks, face shields, and protective glasses), meanwhile, each level of the buildings and the reception desks of each office will have alcohol gel and masks available for the visitors. In summary, each and all the Corona-free measures that I recommended yesterday,  will be adopted by the WTCSS administrative complex proprietors and by each and all the tenants, in an organized systemic manner with different contingency phases, tollgates, phases, durations, schedules, and scenarios.
      

      World Trade Center Office Complex. San Salvador. El Salvador

   2. Groceries Markets. Groceries Mercaditos will open in a zone or group of neighborhoods one time per week. This is a project effort that has to be led by the Majors of the cities. These local street markets help local producers to sell their fresh products to the community. Our San Salvador city is segmented in districts, and each district has a specific number of neighborhoods or “colonias”.
      

      San Salvador Map of districts and neighborhoods. Source: https://alcaldiass.wordpress.com/

      Individuals instead of going to the central market or supermarket for essentials will stimulate the “mercaditos” to come to the neighborhoods every week. This shift is required to avoid people using transportation mediums and to avoid congestion in the markets with a heavy density population. The neighborhood residents will be encouraged to shop the essential food and diverse inputs at these fresh groceries mercaditos specific day. During the shopping mercadito´s day, clients will go by bike or walking. Grocery Shops´ proprietors and clients will use protective gear (masks or face shields). They will have alcohol gel available to clean the money after the transactions. The social distance will be promoted and controlled because each “mercadito shops” will be separated from each other with 2 meters in between. Consciously, the consumers will try to wait and keep a distance from other shoppers. The grocery market will be extended in one street block (which will be closed to cars during the whole journée from 7 am to 3 pm).  Groceries Mercaditos are common in many European towns.  These groceries Mercaditos are a stimulus to open the door to new entrepreneurs, who will be able to have an option to sell good quality food (maybe their own production) in the middle of a jobless situation. How many mercaditos, the schedules of operation and their specific business strategy detail organization is in the hands of the Major of the city team.

      

      Weekly markets in Zurich. https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/weekly-markets-in-zurich

3. Welcome to the biking era. The idea of using bikes for transportation is quite remarkable during these times. Bikes are not collective public transportation. And a good bike system has proved to help to reduce the CO2 contamination. State and Federal investment must be done to equip streets with a well-organized bike system and bike-only road-lines. This alternative will help to reduce congestion during transportation transit.As an article from Wired.com has stated it: “The bicycle makes sense in cities. With rising urbanization, our cities need modern mobility solutions, and moving around on two wheels proves time and again that it can offer results. Investment in bicycle infrastructure is a modern and intelligent move. Plenty of research shows the social, economic, environmental, and health benefits of urban cycling.

Please be aware that everything that I post has to be tested in low-risk coronavirus locations first, then rolled out to other high-density communities. It is also a conceptual dynamic strategy. If coronavirus cases begin to rise, the lockdown or stay at home confinement strategy must be retaken. And, most significantly it has to be reviewed, adapted, modified, and approved by your local authorities not just at the state, but at a federal level.   I hope this saga can be of help to all of those who are trying to find out a guideline to re-open your economies. We have to find a way to be safe meanwhile the pandemic is controlled by the sanitary health system, or meanwhile, they find an existing treatment that is used for other sicknesses that could cure the Covid19, or meanwhile, the vaccine is released for all.

Tons of hugs and my solidarity salutations. Today I won´t leave you with an eagle gif image, but with an introduction to my next post,  a beautiful video about how to re-start ecofriendly after the Coronavirus pandemic. My prayers are with all. Thank you for reading to me.

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY.  Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine.  I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy