Loulé, Healthy Cities in Covid times

In short, our approach in the framework of the “Healthy Cities” project is to understand whether urban planning facilitates or conditions the active and healthy lifestyle habits that we intend to foster, and what strategies we can follow to improve it.

Addressing urban planning from a health perspective is new, challenging and requires the involvement of a wide range of sectors, but it is indeed the necessary step if we want to live in an environment that places the health of all as an objective to be achieved.

But all of this is conditioned by the pandemic situation that affects the world. The pandemic of the new coronavirus has affected and is affecting the world in an unimaginable way a few months ago with serious consequences at all levels. One of these consequences is the increase in sedentary lifestyle.

Adaptations to Covid-19 to reduce sedentary lifestyle

People have moved away and retreated as much as possible in the safety of their homes. But the world didn't stop. The world moves at breakneck speed beneath our feet and is constantly changing. Look at everything that has changed in our lives in recent months due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

In addition to government measures and WHO recommendations, the municipality of Loulé took several measures, which proved to be effective and efficient, not only in fighting the virus, but also in defending the population and protecting the quality of life and sustainability of the municipality. Loulé, tried to develop measures that combat this sedentary lifestyle but that allow the population to be safe.

Loulé bet on prevention through numerous measures, as well as information, on a daily basis, to the population. Until the beginning of September, the municipality spent more than 4 million euros on these and other measures to combat COVID.

Some examples of these measures:

- Creation of a digital platform, with the motto “#Louléficaemcasa”, and later “#Loulénãopara”, through the website http://covid19.cm-loule.pt/;

- Creation of a support line for the population, totally free of charge, called “Loulé Solidário Support Line”;

- Creation of a digital platform with free access and available to local commerce in the municipality. It is a tool through which local businesses can simultaneously advertise and market their products through online sales, their contacts, their location through geo-referencing, etc… (www.loulelocal.pt);

- Free food distribution to the needy population;

- Free distribution of masks, visors and protective gloves, etc...;

Along with these measures, it is worth highlighting the dynamics of Loulé, in terms of promoting healthy lifestyle habits through sport and physical activity.

This dynamics was, however, seriously affected. Sport events and activities aimed at formal or informal sport have been suspended or even cancelled. We are indeed experiencing a period of change. She's in there.

What has the municipality done to adapt to this change and current limitations? Continuing the work developed and, thinking about the physical and mental health of the population, we bet on new technologies to add value to our population at a particularly difficult stage.

Minimizing the impact of the pandemic on the population's health

The Municipality of Loulé, as part of the European project "Healthy Cities", has developed a set of initiatives that have begun to be used in the course of compulsory confinement in order to minimize the impact of the pandemic on the health of the population:

- We are made available through GPX files, routes for the population Walk, Run or Pedal safely, respecting the social distance inherent to current contingencies and depending on the physical condition and taste of each one. These proposals are part of a leisure activity accessible to all, and can be carried out individually, in family or small groups of friends (less than 10 participants). On the www.louledesporto.com a specific page was made available for these initiatives (available in Portuguese, English and French), where interested parties can download the various routes: https://www.louledesporto.com/propostasacp/;

- An "Online Sports Training Plan" has been created where all interested parties have the opportunity to access online training credited by the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth on the most varied topics in the sports area: https://www.louledesporto.com/formacoes/. From April to December, more than 20 formations take place;

- Thematic Webinars were held where in a virtual environment all interested parties participated in an event to exchange experiences, knowledge and experiences in the area of online training, nutrition, psychology, leadership, resource management etc…;

- On the www.louledesporto.com site was made available a page with 10 video lessons with 10 tutorials, with a set of recommendations to help the population to be active at home, reducing the time spent in sedentary behavior and improving the health of the population: https://www.louledesporto.com/aulasvideo/.

From 18 to 30 October, the Algarve Cancer Association (AOA), in partnership with the Municipality of Loulé organized a "Virtual Sports Event", which was the “MamaMarathon 20” that challenge the population to participate, at home or outdoors, in an appropriate day and time, whether walking; RUN; PEDALING; SWIM; CLIMB STAIRS; indoor or outdoor, the limit the imaginary of each, as long as it avoided concentrations of people.

Because the world does not stop, the municipality of Loulé will also not stop in order to do more and better in favor of improving the health, sustainability and quality of life of the population.

By Tiago Guadalupe, local coordinator of Loulé.