Mountains Did Not Move

In this episode Olga is joined by Agata Galuszka, an entrepreneur and life success coach specialising in working with women to help them achieve their life goals. Sara has to unfortunately sit this episode out, being inundated with work after the Andorran Government's latest decree on support for companies.

We find ourselves at a point where our part of the world is reopening. We discuss what the past few weeks have been like in terms of life and business. 

Agata shares with us some interesting and valuable insights about how she sees the effects of the lockdown on people's mindsets, their relationships with their employers and their appreciation for the simpler things in life. We also find ourselves discussing how the past few weeks have been for us as mothers of young children.

Agata also shares the kinds of things she feels are going to "stick" in people's minds as we come out of lockdown and back to our more normal lives. And she also makes some very valid points about how the past few weeks demonstrate that working more flexibly and from our homes can save a lot of resources for people and for businesses.

This is an episode absolutely worth tuning into. It's philosophical, practical and mindful.

As an extra treat, you can download Agata’s Free e-book today, here's the URL to do that: http://bit.ly/WomenEmpowermentNow

Recording today's episode we find ourselves at Labour Day. It's a good day to discuss what the Andorran Government has decreed to be offered to workers, businesses and freelancers as we begin to restart the economy here.

Today we cover a whole host of economic measures including:

The quality of this episode and all the information we share is a testament to the effort and diligence that Sara has been putting into tracking all the legal texts that have been in the works and have gone into law since the middle of March. 

Enjoy this episode - it's one we will look back on sometime into the future for sure, and ask how and whether all these measures have worked.

In this interview we speak with Kalina Minkiewicz who runs the andorraofertas.com blog.

Kalina started out with the idea that this blog could highlight the best deals in Andorra to the eight (or so) millions of tourists who visit the country each year. However, the pandemic lockdown has, of course, brought tourism to a standstill.

Therefore, Kalina's blog has become a lifeline for many of us in Andorra who were wondering which shops were open and which restaurants were delivering food to homes. The blog also went further, letting us know about online education courses and, later, about which shops were actually opening up when some business restrictions were eased.

In this interview we also speak about other recent updates in Andorra and remember to how we felt when everything was just starting out.

In this episode we experience the first steps into anti-confinement and cover 5 events from the past week:

1. The protocol that was introduced to let people out of their homes to go for walks and exercise

2. The tests for the COVID-19 antibody have just been announced - the process for registering and doing the tests has just gone public

3. New measures for supporting businesses were announced and drafted into law (however, we only say a few words on these as we'll have an episode dedicated to this subject soon)

4. We now have a published headline strategy for the reopening of business activity over the three phases

5. The curious case of the Argentinian seasonal workers still stuck in Andorra

Here is the summary, in numbers, illustrating where we would ourselves one month after lockdown in Andorra

LOCKDOWN (14/03/2020) - 16/03/2020:

WEEK 1: 23/03/2020

WEEK 2: 30/03/2020

WEEK 3: 06/04/2020

WEEK 4: 13/04/2020

You can see the graphs that illustrate the data we share in this episode here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_BRK-zYTS4GyxayTyG2WGR5YGiuAL3-4VPN-6vhnNMo/edit?usp=sharing

In this episode we look back at the first coronavirus cases that tested positive in Andorra. We also remember how we personally perceived the news report of the virus from the beginning of 2020.

The key dates and events covered in the episode -

ANDORRA

WHAT WE HAVE SEEN INTERNATIONALLY

In our first episode we introduce you to the principality of Andorra. The oldest state in Europe when it comes to borders. One of the youngest when it comes to having a constitution.

Here are the key stats we mention in the episode:

GENERAL

 468 km²  - the entire area of Andorra

 78.000 inhabitants

 In Europe but not a member of the EU. Located the middle of the Pyrenees mountains (between Spain and France).

 Access: only by road (through Spain or France) and medicalised helicopter.

 Parliamentary co-principality (our laws need to be ratified by the Bishop of la Seu d'Urgell and the President of France).

MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE

 1 hospital: 168 beds total

- Normal beds: 135

- ICU beds: 16 (at the beginning of the outbreak)

- Special beds (isolation or security): 7

- Reserve beds (6 normal, 2 ICU, 2 isolation): 10

 Mechanical ventilation capacity at the beginning of the outbreak: 16. It was very quickly increased to 20, later to 27 and we are now there are 31.

Since March 13 Andorra went from 1 mechanical ventilator for every 4,875 inhabitants to 1 for every 2,516 inhabitants.

CONTROL MEASURES SINCE THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

 The Andorran constitution foresaw the possibility of limiting citizens rights but there had never been a need to develop a Law of the States of Alarm and Emergency. The Law was approved by the parliament during this crisis and is now in force. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, Andorran Government has not declared the State of Alarm so far, as its citizens are trusted to be able to behave according to the measures and recommendations taken.

 Andorra doesn’t have an army but counts on the defence from Spain and France. In case of emergency and lack of professional police capacity, Andorran men over 18 years can be called on for help.

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

 Tourism and retail represent a big part of our economy.

STRATEGY SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE OUTBREAK

 Early lockdown to avoid health system overload.

 Testing: the Andorran government strategy will be based on testing the whole Andorran population for antibody detection twice. 158,400 antibody detection test have been bought for this purpose and are on their way here as we record the episode.