Philip Ball (Newport, UK, 1962) has everything those of us who explain science aspire to: an unparalleled ability to communicate complex ideas in an accessible and highly creative way, masterfully weaving together scientific, philosophical, historical, and cultural concepts. His stories are always original, unique, and captivating, regardless of the subject. He's one of those writers who grabs your hand from the first line and doesn't let go until the very end. And on top of that, he tackles everything! Because, being a physicist and chemist, while he has delved into explaining how color was invented or what quantum physics is, he has also ventured into the history of China or the construction of cathedrals.

In these 15 years of the ARA, the Catalan economy, which three lustrums ago had a gross domestic product (GDP) of about 200 billion euros, has today more than 300 billion, more than 50% higher; it has experienced a total restructuring of the financial system, the flight of business headquarters with the referendum of October 1, 2017 and a fall in activity like in the Civil War due to the coronavirus crisis. This period has now ended with Banc Sabadell shareholders' refusal to accept BBVA's takeover bid, which BBVA had already attempted in 2020. But the story of this newspaper, which hit newsstands (there were still quite a few) on November 28, 2012, featuring Mois Noguera, the first Catalan born that year, on the front page, began two months after a general strike against labor reforms under the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as Spanish Prime Minister. Following the biggest economic crisis since 1929, recovery was beginning to offer hope, but the world was reeling from the shock of the attacks on the debt of Greece and Ireland, and other countries with high deficits, including Spain.

Among the many consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is one that still complicates the lives of hundreds of Catalans: persistent COVID-19, a condition that prolongs the symptoms caused by the virus for at least three months after infection. However, some affected individuals have been battling daily after-effects such as brain fog, memory loss, joint pain, and physical exhaustion for five years; the same number of years since the pathogen first made its rounds around the world. Others don't know it, but the headaches and muscle pain that occasionally incapacitate them from day to day can also be caused by persistent COVID-19. This is indicated by a pioneering investigation by the Terrassa Health Consortium (CST), which has uncovered 99 new cases in the Barcelona metropolitan area involving people who had not sought help despite having suffered compatible symptoms, especially women who had been infected more than once.

The stress, isolation, disruption of habits and uncertainty caused by Covid-19 five years ago may have left their mark on the brain, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature CommunicationsBritish researchers suggest that the context generated by SARS-CoV-2 "may have accelerated brain aging" in the population, even among those who were never infected. This effect is not irreversible, scientists advance.

Covid transmission has accelerated slightly in recent days in Catalonia, with an estimated incidence of 78 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest this year. The previous week, this rate was 46.5, according to epidemiological surveillance data from the Generalitat (Catalan government). Behind this surge is the XFG strain, known as Stratus, a subvariant that the World Health Organization (WHO) included in its monitoring at the end of June due to the speed with which it has spread in Southeast Asia.

The Prosecutor's Office accuses former senior officials of the Department of Health of "discriminating" against the national police officers and civil guards stationed in Catalonia by vaccinating them against COVID-19 much later than the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police officers). The incidents date back to March 2021, when Alba Vergés was a minister. The then director general of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), who later became a minister, is also accused of disqualification from holding any public office.

Five years and three months have passed since the first Spanish victim died from a then-unknown infection called COVID-19. The WHO formally approved the first Global Pandemic Agreement this Tuesday. Ghebreyesus concluded.

Among the various complaints from those affected by the after-effects of the COVID vaccination, one has resulted in a groundbreaking ruling made public this Friday. A Barcelona court was the first to recognize the blood clots suffered by a high school teacher after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine as an occupational accident. Side effects that, just a year ago, the same pharmaceutical company admitted within the framework of a judicial process before the English Supreme Court.

After the audience success of the documentary 7.291, Regarding the management of the pandemic in the Community of Madrid, broadcast on Thursday night on TVE with a 15% audience share, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has not sat idly by and has gone on the attack. In an interview on Cope, she boasted about how her government handled it, despite the fact that it officially resulted in the death toll indicated in the documentary's title, although she has reduced it by half this week, and has asserted that contradicting the confinement measures imposed by the Spanish government has allowed Madrid to become an economic powerhouse.

Health authorities' forecasts have been met: the seventh wave's number of cases began to fall after reaching its peak between June 27 and July 3 with 40,500 weekly cases. According to data from the Information System for the Surveillance of Infections in Catalonia (Sivic), 34,447 positive cases were diagnosed in the last seven days, about 6,000 fewer than the previous week, and the rate of new hospital admissions is stabilising at around 2,000 admissions. Occupancy in intensive care units (ICU) is not growing either, with about fifty seriously ill patients, nor is mortality, with about sixty deaths per week.

The number of sick leaves due to covid (or at least due to symptoms compatible with the virus) has doubled in the last month due to the avalanche of infections during the seventh wave: about 5,000 infections are detected every day despite the fact that the real figure is much higher. Up until now, and since last May, diagnostic efforts were focused exclusively on the vulnerable population; those infected who felt unable to go to work (or work from home) had to go to their health centres in person to request a sick leave from their GP leave, who decided whether the symptoms they described were incapacitating. In short, the Department of Health standardised the evaluation and management of covid as if it were any other pathology. But as of Wednesday, due to the high incidence in the middle of the summer season, with fewer professionals working and with the fear that the health service could collapse for a third consecutive year, the Department has brought back online and automatic processing of sick leave for symptoms compatible with covid. This sick leave is limited (only valid for five days) and will allow the affected population to request sick leave on La Meva Salut app or the Salut website, without the need to provide a positive test and without having to make an appointment to visit their doctor.

Contagions are on the rise and Catalonia is once again experiencing a wave of covid, the seventh in just over two years. Most of the cases are not recorded because, by protocol, tests are only carried out on the over-60 and results from tests carried out at home are no longer counted. This means knowing how the pandemic is evolving is now more difficult than ever, but there is one indisputable way to identify a significant increase in infections: an increase in the number of patients seen by primary care centres and hospitals. And this is precisely what is happening. Catalan Health minister Josep Maria Argimon doubts the impact of this wave will be similar to those experienced in previous waves, but the rise in cases coincides with staff holidays, especially nurses, who are usually the most difficult positions to fill. In addition, according to primary care and hospital workers, there is limited information on the variants now in circulation, which have a greater capacity for transmission. There is no doubt, however, that the more infections there are, the more overloaded the system will be.

The days of the mask are numbered. From Wednesday it will no longer be mandatory to wear it indoors, except on public transport and in health centres. In Catalonia, primary and secondary school students will be the first to do without it since the Generalitat decided to bring forward the measure to Tuesday, coinciding with children's return to school after the Easter holidays.

They did not comply with covid restrictions. They looked for holiday lets in rural Catalonia where they could organise huge parties with about 300 or 400 participants. The landlords were led to believe they were renting the houses to families, and were then left out of pocket as no payment was made for the rental. The organisers did not pay for material they rented either, nor for catering and beverage services: all the invoices remained outstanding. The organisers of these covid parties did, however, charge for admission and also for the drinks. The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested three people who formed a criminal group which, according to the police, had seen an opportunity in the middle of the pandemic and organised these illegal parties. They are estimated to have defraud around €200,000.

Coronavirus is now part of the portfolio of respiratory viruses closely monitored by the Department of Health. It will no longer attempt to find all cases, as it does with other pathogens with a practically stable or seasonal appearance, such as influenza or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes bronchiolitis in children-. The Health Dpt has presented a new system this Friday to check for the main respiratory pathogens affecting the health of the Catalan population. It is a step further towards the normalisation of covid, after two years with epidemiological network focused exclusively on it. "This system is nourished by the lessons of the last two years," summarised the secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas.

The Spanish government will eliminate the mandate to wear masks indoors after Easter. The measure will be passed on April 19, according to Efe news agency. However, there will be exceptions: they will still be mandatory in hospitals, old people's homes and on public transport. This Tuesday the public health commission met, and its experts proposed that the mask mandate stay in place until Easter, and even then stay in force in certain places. This Wednesday afternoon the inter-territorial health council is to meet, and the new measure should receive its approval.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced this Tuesday that it has begun to study the pharmaceutical company Hipra's vaccine against the coronavirus. According to the EMA statement, the clinical studies submitted by the pharmaceutical company so far suggest that the drug may be effective against coronavirus and also against the omicron variant

Starting next Monday, covid diagnostic efforts will focus on protecting the population most vulnerable to the virus: the elderly, the over-60s, people with serious illnesses (e.g. immunodepressed) and pregnant women. After the Spanish Ministry of Health approved the elimination of quarantines for asymptomatic or mildly ill people, the Generalitat has announced that from next week, people with symptoms compatible with coronavirus who do not suffer from any condition which makes them vulnerable will not need to be tested at their health centre or, if they self-diagnosed, to undergo strict isolation, although it is recommended that they stay at home until symptoms subside.

The Public Health Commission, a body under the Ministry of Health, has approved this Tuesday the new strategy for surveillance and control of covid-19 that eliminates quarantines for people infected by the virus who are asymptomatic. The measure will come into effect on Monday, March 28, and is a further step in treating coronavirus like influenza.

Employers' association Pimec claims 48% of the almost 150,000 Catalan companies that obtained a state-secured loan during the beginning of the pandemic will have problems to return the money. This is extracted from a survey of 417 companies, with the results of which the employer has asked for debts repayments to be postponed or cancelled, either fully or partially, in order to avoid "consequences that would be much worse," as explained Pere Cots, Pimec's director of strategic consulting.