Authorities consider imposing new restrictions as Covid-19 cases rise

Catalonia could soon be imposing a fresh set of Covid-19 restrictions as cases continue to rise, largely due to the spread of the more contagious Delta variant first discovered in India.

Speaking to Catalunya Ràdio on Monday morning, public health secretary Carmen Cabezas confirmed that authorities were considering further measures as well as health and safety guidelines, which will be put in place "if deemed necessary."

"We will make appropriate decisions when needed," Cabezas said.

And although the public health secretary acknowledged that people are not getting as ill as a "few months ago," she stressed that the state of the pandemic was still worrisome.

According to her, Catalan authorities cannot make face mask outdoors mandatory once again given the current legal framework regulating their use, but "insistently" encourages residents to wear them.

Cabezas also said that plans were being finalized to "streamline" Covid-19 testing in primary care centers. She said protocols in place for the most serious stages of the pandemic should be updated, for example, not interviewing patients "for 20 minutes" if they are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, or in certain circumstances doing rapid tests instead of PCR tests.

Echoing Cabezas' concerns, Catalan health minister Josep Maria Argimon described the situation faced by primary care centers as "very complicated."

"There is very significant pressure on medical centers because we have people who go to them with, for the most part, mild or very mild symptoms that still require care and tests," he explained. "And at the same time, the primary care system is carrying the entire weight of the vaccination campaign."

The health minister, who said clinical care protocols will be revised given the influx of young people with Covid-19 symptoms, maintained that the incidence rate "is very high" although "the perceived risk is low." 

New weekly vaccination record: 723,000 doses

The public health secretary announced that a new vaccination record was set last week, with 723,000 doses administered, almost 80,000 more than the previous high. She warned however that fewer vaccines will be received during July than June, as the last quarter included an advance on Pfizer doses in order to speed up the vaccine rollout.

Cabezas asked young people for patience as the pace of first doses will go down, with about 150,000 scheduled for this week. The priority is to complete immunization of people aged 60 to 69 and 40 to 49 with second doses, she explained.

Anyone over the age of 16 in Catalonia can book a Covid-19 vaccine appointment.

New Covid-19 vaccinations per day 

Cases soaring

Cabezas acknowledged concern over the worsening Covid-19 data in recent days, but she insisted that the impact on ICU and mortality has been minimal.

The latest figures, released on Monday, show that the transmission rate (Rt number) has risen by 0.49 in 24 hours, to 2.99. It was below 1 as recently as June 20. In the Central Catalonia health region, the Rt number is already above 3, at 3.29.

Similarly, the outbreak risk has risen by 299 in a single day to reach 978. It has skyrocketed in the past two and a half weeks, from a recent low of 79 on June 18.

For this indicator, above 100 is considered 'high' risk and authorities consider anything above 200 as 'very high' risk. It is calculated by multiplying the average spread of the virus over the past seven days by the cumulative incidence over the past two weeks.

The number of patients in hospitals in Catalonia with Covid-19 is 544, up from a recent low of 432 on June 25. Numbers had been falling steadily since mid-April from a peak of 1763.

It is perhaps too early to note an uptick in ICU admissions; currently at 121, the most recent low was 115 on July 1, down from over 518 in mid-April.

The number of Covid-19 deaths in the past number of days has remained low, with no more than five reported in a single day since June 3.