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KEEPING OUR PROGRAMS COVID-19 SAFE

At Outward Bound, safety and hygiene have always been on the top of our “must-have” list. And now we are closely watching the new research as it comes out on a daily basis and have deep dived into our SOPS. We’ve made a new list and  we're checking it more than twice.

Our Covid-19 Safe SOPs are based on the simple principle of ASSIST.

A - Awareness

Create awareness with our staff, vendors, and clients.

S - Systems

New SOPs need to be created and followed to the T.

S - Sanitize

Everything, all contact points. Everything we do must be driven from the point of hygiene.

I - Inform

Make sure that our Participants are well informed about our SOPs and keep them in the loop of all local conditions at all times.

S - Show

SOPs must be demonstratable. Show cleaning, show sanitizing, show  social distancing.

T - Train

​Everyone. Our staff, vendors and the Participants.

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​One key thing we all need to keep in mind, just as the city-dweller may be wary of heading into remote regions, the people living there are charier of receiving us. Covid-19, thankfully, has not inveigled itself untracked into the remote corners of India’s mountains. So not only do our SOPs need to inspire the faith of participants on the expedition, they also need to create faith with the local communities we will be interacting with on the way.
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The control measures described below are based on principles of hygiene, common sense, and consensus guidance. Further, they are based on the current recommendations from WHO and other international bodies (with source provided in the footnotes where applicable) and are liable to change as more research comes in. Also, we are being continuously advised by our on-board doctor, Dr. Rajesh Bhardwaj, who has been on OBIH’s Board for several years now and in charge of all medical protocols required to be followed for all OBIH programs. 

GROUP TRAVEL AND FIXED DEPARTURES

Sadly, that’s not an option anymore. Not for some time. One of the key highlights of an Outward Bound program anywhere in the world, is the opportunity they give to strike up new friendships. Strangers meet up in the wilderness and emerge as friends for life. We’ll have to wait a while for that.

Our focus will be on customized trips for family and friends, schools and corporate groups. Basically, people who already know one another and have faith in each other’s “covid-free” status. The world over, this has been referred to as your social bubble - small group of friends or family members allowed to socialize together during the coronavirus. This can extended to your office colleagues, depending upon the social distancing rules your company is currently following.

In addition, participants obligations (below) will also apply.

​THE REGIONS WE CHOOSE

Three clear factors will decide our trekking routes for the near future:

1. Accessibility: ​We feel that for a few months at least, people (including the intrepid traveler) will be unwilling to take public transport. The start points of all wilderness expeditions will need to be accessible by road, so people can drive up there on their own. For India, we’re looking at a maximum drive time of 12 – 14 hours. This is short enough to be done continuously without having to take an overnight halt, and long enough to go a little deeper into the wilderness. 
2. Choice of Trails: We will favour choosing less popular trails - something that Outward Bound does as a matter of course, but there will be an emphasis on this for the near future.
3. Topography: We will favour choosing areas where it will be easier to maintain social distancing due to topography, difficulty level, or trail conditions. and where the possibility of a medical evacuation is at its least. 

​SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL

​Over the past several weeks of lockdown, we have all been witness to one singular, undeniable fact - when the world stayed home, the planet flourished! We will continue to be plastic-free as best as we possibly can; buy and eat the produce that we find enroute our expeditions; employ temporary staff local to the area; set up our campsites in areas that cause as little disturbance to wildlife as possible, and ensure we leave the natural environment even cleaner than we found it.

​IF OBIH IS ARRANGING FOR YOUR TRAVEL VEHICLE 

​If you want us to arrange the travel vehicle for you, or if it is a large group of participants (family, friends, students or corporates), we would be happy to arrange for transportation, the sanitation and hygiene of which would be our responsibility. 

• All participants will submit to a temperature check before boarding the vehicle. Anyone running a temperature of more than 98.6° F will not be allowed to board the vehicle and will be directed to get in touch with local health authorities. 
• All participants will submit to a check of their SpO2 levels before boarding the vehicle. Any participant with an SpO2 level below 90% will not be allowed to board the vehicle.
• A prior recce would have identified the pit stops for a quick loo break, which will be washed and sanitized before entering. 
• Water and packed food will be served, so there is no need to halt at a local restaurant or dhaba. 
• The car/coach will be disinfected after every use. High touch points (door handles, seats, seat backs, steering wheel, power window buttons, door locks, windows, TV screens, will be cleaned down with a soap and water solution and then sprayed with disinfectant surface cleaner. The disinfectant will be sprayed and left on the surface for minimum one minute before wiping off with a tissue or cloth.  
• The driver will wear a mask (cotton/reusable/washable) and will be instructed not to shake hands with the participants.
• We would suggest keeping the windows of the vehicle open and avoid the air-conditioning since the virus can remain in recirculated air.
• No water bottles will be made available in the vehicle and participants are expected to bring their own water bottles. A 20 ltr refill jar of drinking water will be kept in the bus (wiped down and disinfected) in case additional water is required.
• Once the luggage has been off-loaded from the vehicle, it will be disinfected (sprayed and wiped with a soap and water spray and then wiped down with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and left in a central place for loading.
• A travel map of zones (red, orange or green) that the vehicle will pass through will be recorded to ensure that there are absolutely no avoidable stops made in the orange or red zones. In case of unavoidable reasons, Participants and Instructors will not deboard the vehicle unless it is an emergency.
• If coaches are being used for travel, then we will ensure that they have separate driver/conductor cabins to ensure minimal contact.
• All curtains and carpets will be removed from the vehicle.

OUR STAFF

All expedition Facilitators and Instructors will have to read the listed protocols before every Program, to ensure a Covid-19 safe trip. 

• The districts of India have been divided into three zones -- red, orange, and green -- depending on the number of COVID-19 cases present in each. They are described as follows (Ref:: Economic Times)

1. Red Zone: Districts where sizable number of cases were detected or areas which were declared hotspots.
2. Orange Zone: Where only a few cases were found in the past with no increase in the number of positive cases.
3. Green Zone: Districts where there are no COVID-19 cases.

• Most of the staff on our expeditions are local to the area. We will ensure that each of the expedition staff that comes in contact with the participants will have lived in a Green Zone for the 14 days prior to the expedition. 
• All staff will wear a fresh mask every day and will wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds regularly, especially before and after touching any surface that comes in contact with other participants on the expedition. These could be personal equipment, tents, sleeping bags, mattresses or dining tables, chairs, food dishes etc.
• The use of Nitrile or Latex gloves, while good for optics, isn’t the best thing for outdoor trips in the wilderness, and we would not be requiring our staff to wear them all the time for the following three reasons:

1. A small puncture or tear in the gloves is not uncommon in the wilderness and Nitrile or Latex gloves give a false sense of security.  
2. The World Health Organization does not believe that wearing gloves outside is effective in preventing coronavirus infections: “Regularly washing your bare hands offers more protection against catching COVID-19 than wearing rubber gloves,” the health organization has clearly stated. (Ref: World Health Organization)   
3. Gloves – Nitrile or Latex are meant for single use only. They need to be discarded after every 4 hours, and these gloves take hundreds of years to bio-degrade.

• Everyone on the staff will have their personal bottles of hand sanitizer and will be encouraged to use it at regular intervals.
• Temperatures of every member in the group, including the staff, will be taken every morning and evening. As will the SpO2 levels, to check for “silent hypoxia” (Ref: The New York Times) . Checking SpO2 levels is common for all expeditions beyond 3000m, but due to the special circumstances, these levels will be checked irrespective of the altitude.
• Porters and Ponies will be asked to move up ahead and will not accompany the group while on the expedition. Neither will they come in direct contact with any of participants. Pony men and the porter’s medical history will be noted down, as well as the zones they live in, to ensure they’re Covid-19 free. 
• All participant bags carried and handled by porters and staff will wiped down and sanitized every evening.

​STANDARD PROTOCOLS FOR TREKS AND EXPEDITIONS

​Following are the mandatories that will be followed by OBIH for all wilderness programs that are expedition based, i.e., where the group sets up a new campsite at different locations on the route every night.

DINING AND SERVING PROTOCOLS:

• The Kitchen staff will continue to maintain the high levels of hygiene expected of them. We would rather they not use the hand sanitizers while preparing and serving meals. Hand washing with soap and water as per protocol will be the ideal method of hand cleaning.
• All chefs and serving staff will wear fresh masks while cooking and serving. 
• Clean water and liquid soap will be placed outside the dining and kitchen tents for the use of everyone including staff and participants. “Pinky paani”, water diluted with potassium permanganate crystals, will also be placed alongside as a final rinse. All water will be made available in buckets with water pumped in through a foot pump – a standard protocol in all OBIH trips, but we’re highlighting it here for the sake of clarity.
• Food will be served in the dining tent, and only after it has been completely laid out will the participants be asked to enter the dining tent. Depending on the weather, chairs and small tables will be laid outside the dining tent to ensure social distancing for those who feel the need for it.
• Tableware will be at a minimum barring necessities like salt & pepper shakers and sugar containers and these will be cleaned and sanitized after every meal.
  
• We normally serve fresh chappatis or puris on our trips. But to ensure minimal contact with the staff during mealtimes, hot chappatis will be placed in casseroles on the table itself.
• Every participant will be allotted their own cloth bag of crockery and cutlery – plate, glass, fork, spoon and dish washing soap dispenser/scrubber. They will be expected to wash their personal items themselves – fresh hot water will be provided for the purpose. A final rinse with hot boiling water will be provided after which the participants will take their personal items back with them to their tent, to be brought out for the next meal.

TOILET AND HYGIENE

• A “Covid-safe” kit will be provided to every participant before the start of the expedition. This will include:

1. Fresh masks, one for every day of the expedition, for those who require it.
2. Small personal bottles of hand sanitizer.
3. Toilet seat sanitizer spray.
4. Toilet paper.

• OBIH’s toilet vs participant ratio is usually 1:4. But we will now make this ratio 1:3. 
• As always, water and soap will be placed outside every toilet tent.  In addition, a bucket of “pinky paani” ​ will also be present.

EQUIPMENT ALLOCATION

​To minimize contact with equipment that may otherwise be handled by the expedition staff, we will take the following steps:

• Sanitized tents, sleeping mattresses, sheets and trekking pillows will be allocated to each participant at the beginning of the expedition. They will be marked with their name and placed in a thick re-useable plastic bag. 
• The re-usable plastic bags will be off-loaded from the ponies/transport vehicle at the end of every day, by our staff who will don gloves for this and will be laid out on the ground for the participants to open themselves.
• In any OBIH trip, participants are encouraged to set up their own tents and interiors. Assistance will always be at hand, but we would encourage participants to minimize external contact with their equipment as far as possible.
• Participants will be encouraged to bring their own sleeping bags.
• Participants will be assigned to tent groups (if using tents), so sleeping  arrangements will be with same people for entire program.

EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE

Trekking and rafting equipment and personal protection equipment (PPE) will be sanitized as per the recommendations of their manufacturers (Ref: Gear Manufacturers) :

1. ​Hard equipment such as helmet shells, kayaks, carabiners, harness buckles etc provided by OBIH,  will be wiped down with surface disinfectant that has 70% Isopropyl Alcohol, after each use.  At the end of the expedition and before the start of the next one, all such equipment will be washed in mild soap solution as per the instructions listed by their respective manufacturers and air dried.
2. For soft equipment like helmet insides, ropes, tents, harnesses, drybags etc. spraying isopropyl alcohol after every use is the best option.  No bleach, acids, and detergents to be used.

STANDARD PROTOCOLS FOR HOMESTAYS | LODGES | FIXED CAMPSITES

Some Outward Bound Programs work from fixed locations – campsites or lodges. We also use home-stays on some of our expeditions, instead of setting up a campsite in the area. As always, OBIH will ensure, to the best of its ability, that the places we choose are clean and hygienic. In addition, we will ensure that all the rooms/tents are wiped down and sanitized before entry. 
The following guidelines will be handed over to every campsite/lodge or home-stay that we will use. We understand that the guidelines are extensive and detailed. And therefore, OBIH will use only those properties where we are assured that the guidelines are being followed without compromise.
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Following are the steps we will undertake to ensure the safety of all our participants:

• All staff at the lodge/homestay/campsite (henceforth using the term “accommodation”) will be required to wear masks at all times and to wash their hands regularly. Automatic hand sanitizer dispensers will be situated at regular intervals.
• The accommodation will be instructed not to hand over, or leave in the room/tent, any brochures or reading material. All information that is required to be communicated will be sent digitally.
• The accommodation will ensure they have track of every guest on their premises – in terms of the city they are from and their medical history three months prior to check in. This information will be received at the time of reservation itself.
• The accommodation will ensure that all guests are checked for their temperature at the entrance. OBIH will opt only for accommodations that have the ability to do this outdoors before entry into the area. Participants will also be checked for their SpO2 levels for reasons described in “OBIH Obligations – Our Staff” above.
• A “Covid-safe” kit will be provided to every participant when they enter the premises. This will include:

1. Fresh masks, one for every day of the expedition, for those who require it.
2. Small personal bottles of hand sanitizer.
3. Toilet seat sanitizer spray.
4. Toilet paper.

• All high touch points at the entrance premises (door handles, reception desks, pens, windows etc.), will be cleaned down with a soap and water solution and then sprayed with disinfectant surface cleaner (Ref: Business Insider-Science)  if it has come in contact with any participant. The disinfectant will be sprayed and left on the surface for minimum one minute before wiping off with a tissue or cloth.  
• Ideally, OBIH will only choose such premises where no physical process of check-in will be required, and it will all be managed electronically/online.
• All high touch points in the room/tents will be similarly disinfected (door handles, mirrors, windows, TV screens, remote controls if any etc.)
• Once the luggage is cleaned and disinfected, participants will be expected to carry their own luggage to their room/tents – we’d like to ensure minimal contact a far as possible.
• No sweets, welcome drinks or fruits will be provided at the welcome area.
• Linen needs to be handled with minimal agitation since the process of shaking or dusting it may spread contaminants in the air and nearby surfaces. As a precautionary measure, and to ensure minimal contact, the accommodation will be advised that:

1. Rooms/tents will be cleaned only once in three days (or on request) and the linen will be not be changed unless the                               participant is staying for longer than three days. 
2. No turn down service will be available either. 
3. No laundry service will be provided.

• All linen will be washed as per CDC guidelines  – at a temperature of at least 160°F (71°C) for a minimum of 25 minutes. The use of chlorine bleach will add an extra measure of safety. (Ref: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Payments for any extra services availed of will be informed to the participant electronically for approval and these will be wired to OBIH, which in turn will electronically transfer the required payments to the lodge/homestay/campsite. This is to ensure that cash is not exchanged, and credit cards remain in your wallets.
• OBIH will only choose those premises where all respect will be paid to the concept of social distancing. This would mean:

1. No meals in the dining room with unknown guests on the premises. If the dining room has prior guests present, room  service will be accommodated for.
2. Seating areas, hammocks, benches etc. maintain a minimum distance of 6 feet.
3. Bonfires (if present) will be lit separately for the OBIH group at a safe distance to ensure minimal contact with unknown                          guests on the premises.

• The virus that causes COVID-19 has not been detected in drinking water - yet. Conventional water treatment methods should remove or inactivate the virus that causes COVID-19. We will ensure that all accommodations have RO or filtered water. No bottled water will be available.
• The use of swimming pools on the premises will not be encouraged. However, natural sources of water like fresh-water streams, rivers or lakes nearby. which we know to be safe and clean, we will encourage our participants to go ahead and take a dip (Ref: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).   According to the CDC, there is no evidence to show that anyone has contracted COVID-19 through drinking water, recreational water, or wastewater. The risk of COVID-19 transmission through water is expected to be low.

​PARTICIPANTS OBLIGATIONS:

• All participants will be required to send their details (city of origin, medical history etc.) in advance along with government approved identity card (copy of Aadhar card, passport, or driver’s license).
• All participants are required to sign off on their health and medical disclosure forms before they can be confirmed for the course. Post-Covid, some additional steps will be undertaken:

1. Participants will need to disclose their travel history for three months prior to booking on the trip. 
2. Participants will also ensure that they do not travel 21 days before course start date. An undertaking to this effect will need be included in the disclosure form.
3. The mandatory liability form will include a Covid-19 clause that states that if a participant contracts the virus despite all our efforts, they will not hold OBIH responsible for the same.
4. The participant will have to agree to be isolated or removed from the trip if at any time they are found to be infected or came in contact with a +ve carrier, hitherto undisclosed.

• A gear list would have been provided to all participants well in advance. Participants are obliged to adhere to the same.
• All participants will submit to regular checks for temperature and  SpO2 (oxygen saturation) levels  while on the expedition. Those running a temperature of more than 100.4° F while on the expedition, will be immediately directed to get in touch with local health authorities. SPO2 levels between 94 and 100 are considered normal. However, we need to be mindful of the fact that as we gain in altitude beyond 1500 m, oxygen saturation levels decrease.  An SPO2 reading of 92 at an altitude of 4000 m  may not be a cause for alarm. Your Team Leader will take your readings on a daily basis and the final call on this with be theirs.  If participants are required to connect with local health authorities, OBIH will assist  with this. All expenses in relation to this will need to be borne by the Participants.
• All Participants will be required to get adventure travel insurance and need to ensure that Covid-19 is covered in the insurance.
• All participants will be expected to wash and rinse their personal crockery and cutlery as described under the “Dining and Serving Protocols” above.
• All Participants will be instructed on proper hand-washing, sanitation, and hygiene procedures. Instructors will be vigilant in the enforcement of this and ensure this is maintained throughout the entire course.