10- to 15-year-olds at summer camps will be able to take antigen tests at pharmacies

Children between the ages of 10 and 15 who are currently enrolled in summer camp programs will be allowed to take antigen tests at pharmacies every three days from Monday, while authorities have announced that they will begin prioritizing the vaccination of camp counselors.

This comes a day after Spanish health minister Carolina Darias announced that the government would approve the sale of these rapid tests at drugstores without a prescription in next week's cabinet meeting on Tuesday. 

The aim of this measure is to ease some of the pressure on the primary care system, which has been overwhelmed by the rise in cases.

"We must increase our capacity to detect cases to more quickly identify people who may be positive," the minister said.

Relentless growth in cases

Catalonia has seen record-high numbers of new daily Covid-19 infections due to the spread of the Delta variant, particularly among younger ages groups. 

As of July 13, 2021, official figures, released daily on this website, state that there have been 800,811 Covid-19 cases confirmed PCR tests and other methods including antibody tests. According to funeral homes, a total of 22,294 people with or suspected to have had the virus have died since the beginning of the outbreak.

Meanwhile, 4,629,149 residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine, the equivalent of 58.8% of Catalonia's population. Out of those, 3,413,772 have also been administered a second dose (43.5% of the total population). 3,799,980 residents are considered to be fully immunized (48.4%).