The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) is the first in Spain to rule that a teacher's sick leave due to adverse effects from a defective batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines should be considered a workplace accident. This was explained on Monday by the Col·lectiu Ronda cooperative of lawyers, who represented the secondary school teacher, a substitute. The teacher was vaccinated before most of the population, in February 2021, due to her status as an essential worker, along with security forces and healthcare personnel. Even so, given her age group, she would not have been eligible until June of that year. A few weeks after the campaign began, authorities issued a safety alert and halted the supply of the ABV5300 vaccine batch from the British manufacturer, as some patients who had received the dose had suffered severe cases of thrombosis. 228,000 vaccines from that batch arrived in Spain.

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.

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.

Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has yet to self-criticize the number of deaths in nursing homes. In fact, coinciding with the fifth anniversary, the Community of Madrid denied the previously officially recognized figure of 7,219 victims in these centers. "It was an invention by the then minister," maintains Ayuso's executive, who in a statement this Wednesday blames former Minister of Social Policies Alberto Reyero, of Ciutadans, for the alleged error. "The real number of deaths in nursing homes was 4,100," the Madrid government now asserts, lowering the initial figure by 3,119 and asserting that the cause of death "was never to avoid help." "No number was invented," Reyero told Efe.

Until his recent retirement, Fernando García López worked for the National Epidemiology Centre and served as spokesperson for the Madrid Public Health Association. He participated in one of the most revealing studies of the consequences of the pandemic in Europe, led by the University of Southampton, and in this interview he reflects on two proven realities: that in Europe and Spain the risks of the pandemic were trivialised and that poor management results in an unacceptable number of deaths.

October is the new date set by the Girona-based company Hipra to obtain authorisation for its vaccine against covid-19. The company's R&D director, Èlia Torroella, had said that they expected to receive the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) approval between June and July, but they have now been asked for more data. "The situation has been changing and different requirements have been made at different times, and in our case they have asked us to provide more information. We know what they want, we will provide it, and we are convinced that the vaccine will be part of vaccination plans in the autumn," Torroella emphasised, in reference to the Ministry of Health's plans to start administering the fourth dose to the over 60 and to healthcare personnel after the summer.

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.

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.

Deaths attributable to the cronavirus pandemic just two years ago today could be many more than the 5.9 million reported in official figures between January 2020 and December 2021. A study published in the scientific journal The Lancet now argues that the real number of excess deaths could be three times higher, 18.2 million. The report compiled data on deaths from all causes by week and month during the two years since covid broke out, as well as the previous eleven years. From this information, it has made a model to estimate the overall excess deaths during the pandemic.

Spain has surpassed 100,000 deaths due to coronavirus this Tuesday. Since the pandemic broke out two years ago, 100,037 people have died, 18,179 of whom lived in Catalonia. Updated data from the Spanish Ministry of Health indicate that just over 11 million positives have been detected, although this figure is much lower than the real figure since cases were underdetected for months and now, after the drop in cases, contacts are no longer being followed up.

"It was a risky operation, but we did what we had to do because we needed the material to protect health professionals. We had to fend for ourselves and we did not make a mistake," said Minister of Health Josep Maria Argimon, who appeared on Thursday before Parliament's ordinary health committee at his own request to defend the controversial contract for the purchase of masks and PPE from Basic Devices, signed during the first days of the pandemic. The contract was made through the emergency route for an initial value of €60m and Catalonia's Anti-Fraud Office investigated and qualified the operation as "reckless" due to the lack of solid references about the company – it was the first time it was supplying the health system – and the advance payment made to ensure the acquisition, which was finally carried out and €35m were paid. "It is always more comfortable not to take risks, but in the situation of maximum shortage and pressure on care we were in, we had to do it. We did what we could," reiterated Argimon, who was the director of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) at the time.

Researcher at University of Leicester and member of the scientific committee that advises the Catalan Government on covid Salvador Macip talks to ARA by phone from the UK. Although the epidemiological situation has improved in Catalonia and Europe and it is expected that in the coming months the prevalence of covid will decrease, the scientist warns that there are too many infections to stop monitoring the virus altogether. Therefore, he defends minimally invasive measures, such as the use of masks indoors, should continue. This includes classrooms, where health authorities want to lift the mandate within ten days.

Dozens of families are trying to take to court care homes where their parents or grandparents died during the first waves of covid in 2020 as a way to complete their process of mourning . "Until I find out the truth I will not be able to finish this strange mourning," confesses one of those affected by the Residencial Palau nursing home, in the town of Palau-solità i Plegamans, the latest addition to list of homes denounced by the Prosecutor's Office so that a court in Sabadell can investigate whether there was negligence in the 40 deaths during those dramatic months. The witness, who prefers not to identify herself, claims that the search for justice also responds to the fact that she owes it to her dead father: "responsibilities [must] be clarified and the facts [must] be clarified".

As of today, masks are no longer mandatory in the street and will only have to be worn indoors as long as the current rates of transmission of the virus, which are still very high, are maintained. Outdoors, on the other hand, health authorities restrict its use to crowded spaces.