Catalonia is urgently returning to restrictions to fight Covid-19. The nightlife sector throughout Catalonia will have to close, the number of people in gatherings and meetings will be limited and the Catalan government is to ask the court to authorize a nightly curfew from 1am to 6am. Capacity restrictions are also being implemented for bars, restaurants and cultural events in the face of the unstoppable rise in coronavirus infections - now beginning to be driven by the omicron variant - just as the Christmas holidays begin.
Following the meeting of the Catalan government's Covid-19 standing committee, the executive has agreed on a raft of drastic new measures to deal with what, for Catalonia, is the sixth wave of SARS-CoV-2.
Specifically, the measures are as follows:
- Nighttime curfew from 1am to 6am.
- Nightlife sector (nightclubs and late night venues) is to close.
- Social gatherings and meetings are limited to a maximum of 10 people.
- Maximum occupancy of restaurants and bars will be 50% of the normal maximum.
- Occupancy in cultural and entertainment events, in shops and in gyms is set at 70% of the normal maximum.
- Employers are asked to reintroduce working from home as much as possible.
These proposals will be presented to the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) and the government is working with the forecast that they will enter into force on the night of Thursday 23rd to Friday 24th December. The initial validity of this measure will be two weeks, and in that case, they would end on the day of Reis, January 6th.
Situation "much worse than last year"
Meanwhile, government spokesperson Patricia Plaja has argued that "these measures are being taken to slow down the growth of the pandemic. The measures would not be taken if they were not strictly necessary." "It is essential to reduce mobility and interaction between people who are not in the same bubble group. If no action is taken urgently, the impact will be much more serious," Plaja warned. "We are much worse off than we were this time last year," she said.
The Catalan health minister, Josep Maria Argimon, explained that "the omicron variant will soon dominate throughout Europe". In this line, he stressed the need for booster doses. He also predicted that Catalonia's daily record of infections would be broken, and predicted that the figure of more than 12,000 new cases in 24 hours could be exceeded.
Hospital pressure, rising fast as Christmas approaches
As explained by the Catalan executive, one of the key elements that has led them to adopt new restrictions is the situation of Catalan hospitals. Primary care has been experiencing a very difficult situation for days and hospital admission figures are rising. With Christmas just days away, CatSalud reports that there are 1,280 coronavirus admissions today. The situation of the Intensive Care Units is also worsening, with 310 cases admitted. These figures have risen by about 10 percent over the weekend (from 1,139 and 287 respectively on Friday), but the alarm is sounding because the exponential rises in contagions already seen around Europe and now beginning in Catalonia could lead to the health system being severely pressured as early as new year, by sheer weight of numbers of infections, even if the new variant is more mild than the delta wave.
Main image: Carmen Cabezas, Patrícia Plaja and Josep Maria Argimon, in the press appearance