Catalonia to reopen indoor areas of nightclubs with Covid certificates from October 8

The Catalan government will allow the indoor areas of nightclubs to reopen from October 8 — but only to those who have Covid passports demonstrating proof of vaccination, a negative test, or of having had the virus.

Establishments will use an app to check whether certificates are valid or not, while patrons will be allowed to dance on the dancefloor although they will be required to wear masks when not eating or drinking. Indeed, eating and drinking will only be allowed outside the dancefloor. 

Nightclubs will be allowed to open at 70% capacity until 5 am on weeknights and 6 am on weekends (Friday and Saturday evening). 

Indoor seating areas and dancefloors have remained closed since early March 2020 except for two weeks early this summer before the Delta-fueled surge in coronavirus cases forced them to shut again.

As these businesses are only currently allowed to have customers in outdoor terraces until 3 am, some have refrained from reopening at all.

The sector has long demanded to be able to dance floors and seating areas located inside venues, claiming it would help reduce the number of illegal 'botellón' street drinking parties. Business owners have staged loud protests throughout the pandemic to call for greater benefits to help keep them afloat as well as to be allowed to open to a greater number of patrons.

A week and a half ago, coinciding with the local Barcelona La Mercè patron saint festivities, thousands upon thousands of revelers gathered for mass drinking parties that ended in clashes with the police as well as dozens of arrests and people injured.

Pandemic under control

Covid-19 figures in Catalonia are stable, far from the soaring rates seen over the summer, with only 467 new cases reported on October 4.

The outbreak risk — calculated using the iEPG index found by multiplying the average spread of the virus over the past seven days by the cumulative incidence over the past two weeks — is 'moderate' at 64, while the transmission rate currently stands at 1.06 people infected per confirmed case. 

And while vaccination rates have begun to plateau, they still remain relatively high: 5,909,659 residents have had one vaccine dose (74.6% of the population); 5,053,757 have had two (63.9%); 5,755,736 are considered to be fully vaccinated (72.6%).