Azernews.Az

By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources has identified eight beaches in Baku that are suitable for use in Azerbaijani amid the spread of COVID-19.

These are Bilgah, Mardakan, Nardaran, Novkhani, Pirshagi, Zagulba, Shuvalan and Buzovna beaches.

The ministry made the relevant announcement after the Caspian Complex Environmental Monitoring Department and the Republican Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology conducted a monitoring on the beaches by taking samples from seawater and conducted the microbiological analysis.

Currently, monitoring and research are underway on other beaches in the Caspian Sea.

At the same time, 229 beaches in Baku and Sumgayit have been inspected on the basis of questionnaires jointly with employees of the Baku City Executive Power, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. As a result of the analysis, suitable beaches were identified in Baku and Sumgayit, taking into account the social distance and safety rules during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the meantime, special software, an interactive website and a mobile application have been developed to determine the capacity of the beaches, taking into account the safety of vacationers. This information is reflected on a special website "cimerlik.az". By entering the page, citizens will be able to obtain information about a list of beaches, capacity levels, infrastructure and conditions, address and location, etc.

At the same time, a special mobile application has been developed to determine the situation, which will transmit the number of people entering and leaving the beach area to the system.

It should be noted that the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers lifted the restriction on visiting beaches on August 3.

Earlier, on June 16, a new public beach was opened in Shikhov resort area in Baku. Large-scale landscaping works have been carried out on the public beach - a rescue station has been created; kiosks offering soft drinks and various foodstuffs; umbrellas; locker rooms and shower cabins, toilets, arbours have been installed; football and volleyball grounds, an asphalt path laid along the shore; and a parking lot created. There are a large number of benches and hammocks, and garbage cans all over the territory of the beach.

It should be noted that the main factors hampering the spread of the coronavirus on the beach are the sun, the salinity of the sea sand and the surface. Ultraviolet rays destroy the remnants of sea salt on the surface of the virus.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

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