Health expert says Kings’ Day parades can go ahead with caution

One of Catalonia’s leading epidemiological experts, Dr Antoni Trilla, predicts that Kings’ Day parades on the evening of January 5 will be able to go ahead, despite the worsening pandemic situation. 

In Catalonia, it is traditionally the three kings who deliver presents to children on January 6, and their arrival the evening before is normally celebrated with parades up and down the country.

The head of epidemiology at Barcelona’s Hospital Clinic believes the parades would still be able to go ahead with a certain level of normality, but with some extra precautions. 

If they go ahead, Trilla asks the public to wear face masks which now are compulsory in outdoor spaces anyway, not to over-socialize, and to go home after the celebration has ended. 

"If the [pandemic] situation does not change drastically, the parades can be held," he said on Catalunya Ràdio. 

He also believes that the January 10 return date for children to go back to school can be maintained, as he sees it as more detrimental to the mental health of children to have them locked up at home. However, he admits that it could be a good idea to perform antigen tests at school entrances on the first day.

It was announced yesterday that the Catalan government’s health advisory committee will accept positive antigen tests that were self-performed as valid results, and the person will not be asked to go to a health center for a PCR, but instead they should self-isolate. 

Nightclubs call for New Year’s reopening

Nightclubs in Catalonia, shut by authorities in the latest announcement of new measures to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, have presented two appeals to the Catalan High Court (TSJC) against their closure. 

The Catalan Federation of Nightclubs (Fecalon), the Catalan Federation of Restoration and Musical Activities (Fecasarm), and the Platform of Entrepreneurs Affected by covid-19 (Peacovid-19) presented the contentious-administrative appeals against the complete suspension of nightlife and the reduction of capacity for bars and other establishments. 

They ask to be able to reopen nightclubs at least on New Year's Eve, one of the most important in terms of their business.

Their writ calls for the total nullification, or, at least urgent precautionary suspension of all restrictive measures, including the nightly curfew and the cap on social gatherings, as the entities view them as unconstitutional.

60,000 primary care center visits

Primary care centers (CAPs) received some 60,000 visits on Monday for Covid-19 related complications - 25% more than during the peak of the 5th wave of the pandemic last summer. 

Then there were about 48,000 visits recorded on July 12, as explained by the director of primary care, Ariadna Mas on radio station RAC1. 

The numbers are an "absolute record" and Mas believes that they will rise even higher after the Christmas holidays. 

CAPs across Catalonia are now "covid-focused," and only visits to pregnant women, newborns, and more at-risky and non-deferrable situations can be maintained. 

The director has asked to leave visits to primary care centers for those who really need them. She added that you should go if you have a fever higher than 38 for three days, or a feeling of breathlessness

Mas predicts that there would be "two tough weeks" ahead, but hoped that just as growth in new cases and other pandemic metrics had been explosive, so too would the following drop.