Five years on from Covid-19, is Catalonia prepared if a similar pandemic breaks out?

It’s been five years since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, shocking ordinary citizens and the medical community alike. 

It was a time of deep uncertainty, panic, and confusion, and a crisis that Esteve Fernández, appointed last summer as Catalonia’s Secretary of Public Health, says has marked a “before and after” in the health services. 

Coming out the other side of the biggest global health crisis in living memory, he believes that Catalonia is more prepared today for the arrival of any similar scenario. 

“We have learned a lot from Covid, but not only that, projects have been developed,” he tells Catalan News.

As an example, he highlights the information and data systems for monitoring infections which improved “considerably” in the first years of the pandemic. “We know in real time how the flu epidemic is evolving,” he says. The Information System for Infection Surveillance in Catalonia (SIVIC) is a system that integrates information from primary healthcare centres (CAPs), hospitals, and laboratories.

The analysis of this data will culminate in an epidemiological intelligence network that the Minister of Health established as one of the main projects of this current political term. The network will gather input from universities, research centers, local public health agents, and other administrations that will allow authorities to follow health trends in real time and even make predictions. 

Another of the big differences compared to before the Covid pandemic is the system of virus monitoring in wastewater, with scans carried out fortnightly. “We have means that were not even technologically possible 10 or 15 years ago,” Fernández says. 

In addition, there are now nearly 1,000 medical professionals working in the public health sector in Catalonia, with more staff to monitor epidemiological data.

Coordination is also key for managing any widespread health crisis, in Fernández’s view. “I believe that in the very beginning of the pandemic, there was a lack of coordination, or suboptimal coordination.” He believes alignment in strategy is key between the public health sector and “all the other institutions involved, different ministries, different departments, economy, transportation, etc.”

All of these lessons have added up to Catalonia being in a strong position for the arrival of the next public health issue, be it an epidemic or pandemic. “I believe that we are more prepared, of course, we are conscious about what happened and what can happen in the future.”

“We are not thinking about a specific epidemic or a determined problem, but having the whole system ready to adapt to the situation,” Fernández concludes.