This marks the end of the drought restrictions that have been in place for two and a half years. This Tuesday morning, just before 9 a.m., City Hall workers reactivated the water in the Ciutadella Park waterfall. It was the first to flow again after the restrictions imposed in November 2022. Barcelona City Council plans to recover the water from all of the city's ornamental fountains., but it will do so in phases.

It has been more than a week since the Department of Home Affairs started the procedure to pay back the fines given between March 14 and June 21, 2020, for covid restrictions violations. A total of 24,000 fines were paid, and they can now be claimed back after the Constitutional Court overturned the first lockdown. But beyond this, penalties for non-compliance with the anti-covid measures have continued and in this case the Health Department has already issued almost 195,000 fines since June 2020. The most common fine, which accounts for 41% of those that have been processed in the last year and a half, is for not wearing a mask. Twenty percent are for failure to comply with a local lockdown order and 14% for breaking a curfew.

The curfew and the 10-person limit on gatherings will last at least until January 21, after Catalonia's High Court gave them the green light. It will remain forbidden to leave home between 1 am to 6 am and to get together with over 10 people, two decisions that affected fundamental rights and that needed judicial authorisation to be approved. In parallel, the Government had already extended all other restrictions, which did not require the courts' approval: nightclubs remain closed, capacity inside bars and restaurants is limited to 50%, while in shops, sports facilities, concert halls, theatres, cinemas, auditoriums and circuses with a tent it is reduced to 70%.

The Prosecutor's Office has changed its mind and now backs the night curfew and 10-person limit on gatherings. When the Catalan Government proposed these restrictions for the first time last December 23, the prosecutor's office rejected them because they did not see them necessary, but now, after the Government requested a 14-day extension, the Prosecutor's Office has decided not to oppose it: according to the report they have sent Catalonia's High Court, the extension of the curfew between 1 am and 6 am and the limitation of meetings is "duly justified" by the "necessity, suitability and proportionality of its maintenance and prolongation".

The Catalan government wants to extend restrictions for another fortnight, until January 21. This Tuesday, it will approve at its weekly meeting the covid commission's proposal to extend the measures in force since December 24 and originally ending January 7.

New Year's Eve in Catalonia will again see closed nightclubs and a curfew imposed between 1 am and 6 am in the most populous towns and cities. The new wave of covid has brought on restrictions that will prevent nightclubs and bars from opening for the second consecutive year after the industry's appeal to Catalonia's High Court was unsuccessful. The appeal was dismissed, as judges put "the general interests of the population" during the avalanche of contagions caused by the Omicron variant omicron before damage to businesses, which claimed the Catalan Government does not have sufficient powers to establish some of the restrictions, such as the curfew.

Catalonia's High Court of Justice has backed the curfew and the 10-person limit on gatherings the Generalitat requested. People will have to stay at home between 1 am and 6 am in towns of over 10,000 inhabitants with an incidence above 250 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants in the past week, as well as those adjacent to them, as proposed by the Catalan Government. The judicial endorsement comes despite opposition from the Prosecutor's Office, which had asked to overturn the restrictions because it did not consider them proportionate.

The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, has convened a conference of regional presidents three days before Christmas in the midst of an escalation of contagions and hospitalizations caused by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The meeting, which should have happened earlier as the situation has been critical for days, turned out to be a mere mockery of co-governance: Sánchez only informed his regional counterparts of the decision to make it compulsory to wear masks outdoors in towns and cities (not in the countryside nor on the beach) and of the details of a plan to accelerate vaccination, which had not been discussed beforehand with regional governments. If co-governance is to take measures in a consensual manner, this Wednesday has been just the opposite. In these circumstances, the unease expressed by Catalan president Pere Aragonès and Basque president Iñigo Urkullu is perfectly understandable.

Spanish government president Pedro Sánchez has informed regional presidents the obligatory use of masks outdoors is being brought back and that he is mobilising the armed forces to speed up the vaccination process. Sánchez has detailed a plan that aims to have 80% of the population over 60 boosted by the end of the year. To achieve this, army health personnel will be mobilised and military hospitals will be made available for vaccination.

In little more than a month the omicron variant has spread across Europe, and Catalonia is no exception. The experts that make up the Catalan government's advisory committee on covid expect that between this week and the next this variant will have displaced the delta variant and will be dominant in Catalonia. Taking into account Omicron's speed of transmission, it could reach an average of 25,000 infections by January. Given this scenario, scientists on Monday recommended two lines of action: increasing booster jabs and reapplying restrictions to curb infection. The executive has already asked the courts for permission to apply a new curfew and to limit meetings. But in their latest report the experts do not rule out having to consider "short-term confinement" like the one already agreed in Belgium, "in a worst-case scenario".

Anyone having been in close contact with a confirmed case of covid will have quarantine for ten days, whether they are vaccinated or not. Health minister Josep Maria Argimon has advanced that the change in protocol will be published this Friday and will be required as of next week. So far, this restriction only applied to the unvaccinated and close contacts of Omicron cases.

These days there is again some alarm about the increase in covid-19 cases everywhere. At the moment it seems they are still mainly caused by the delta variant, but in many countries we are seeing a rapid increase in cases of the worrying omicron variant. The lack of data means it is premature to make guesses at what may happen, but, from what is happening in other places and our own experience, it is vital we remain very attentive to the evolution of the virus over the next two weeks. A large increase in cases after the Christmas holidays is taken for granted. However, if preliminary reports about omicron are true, it would not be impossible for this increase to occur even earlier.

The evolution of the pandemic in northern Europe has once again put everyone on alert. Covid-19, as expected, has not disappeared and, therefore, at the slightest opportunity it is spreading again among the least protected people, either because they have not been vaccinated – a percentage which in some countries is so high that it makes us fear another dramatic winter – or because the vaccine's effect has started to wear off. Faced with this situation, there are two clear strategies that, this time, have been implemented throughout the European Union, at least as recommendations to member states. On Wednesday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommended bringing back some restrictions and, above all, injecting a booster dose to the over-40s. In addition, this Thursday the European Medicines Agency has backed the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, where the biggest rise in infections was seen. This measure has already been approved in the United States and also in Israel.

Catalonia High Court has authorised requiring a covid pass to access nightclubs, the last step needed before they can reopen tonight. The Catalan government authorised nightclubs to reopen their indoor spaces as long as clients show their covid pass before entering. The use of this document, however, required court backing as it affects fundamental rights. This morning, the Prosecutor's Office positioned itself in favour of the measure, which it considers "necessary, appropriate and proportionate". The High Court agreed.

Last Friday's illegal party that brought together 9,000 young people at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has set off all the alarm bells, but it is just one of the many meetings that young people from all over the country organise every weekend and which have become a public order problem, as well as a possible source of contagion. The Catalan Minister of Home Affairs, Joan Ignasi Elena, has said he suspects that these open-air parties are not spontaneous but are organised by people who want to make money from the fact that bars and clubs are still closed, which is very likely.

The restrictions that affect fundamental rights, such as the ten-person limit on gatherings and reduced capacity at religious events, will not be extended beyond Friday, according to Government spokeswoman Patrícia Plaja. The Procicat has met to finish polishing the details of the resolution which will be approved on Friday, as explained at a press conference after the executive council. On the other hand, the Generalitat is also considering increasing from 30% to 40% the capacity at sporting events over 10,000 people

Overcrowding, street drinking parties and more than 6,000 people evicted only in Barcelona on the first Saturday without curfew. Barcelona City Council told the ARA that the Guardia Urbana and the Mossos d'Esquadra had to disperse some 2,500 people from the beach areas and the Born neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning and 3,500 more in the Gràcia neighbourhood, which is celebrating its festivities these days. Police sources have also detailed to Efe that the agents had to act in the vicinities of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (Macba) - the Plaça dels Àngels is one of the main hot spots at night - to evict around 350 people more. However, according to the same sources, no relevant incident has been registered.

The improvement in the health situation has allowed the lifting of curfew in the vast majority of towns and cities where it was still in force. The Catalan Government had proposed to keep the curfew in place in 148 towns, but Catalonia's High Court only allowed the extension in 19. It recalled that the pandemic is evolving favourably. Despite this, there are still many other restrictions that, for the moment, must continue to be respected at least until August 27.

Catalonia's High Court has only upheld an extension of the curfew for 19 of the 148 municipalities where the Catalan Government wanted it to stay in force. The biggest one, Barcelona, has been left out of the restrictions to stop the advance of covid-19. Thus, the curfew between one and six in the morning is only authorized in the towns of Alcarràs, Amposta, Arenys de Munt, Badia del Vallès, Balaguer, Banyoles, Calafell, Celrà, Cervelló, Gelida, Manlleu, Martorell, Montblanc, Móra d'Ebre, Palafolls, Salt, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Sarrià de Ter and Torroella de Montgrí, as reported by the court. The TSJC has authorised the 10-person limit on social and family gatherings throughout Catalonia, as well as a 30% reduction in maximum attendance in religious acts and civil ceremonies.

Third extension. The Generalitat will ask Catalonia's High Court to extend curfew for another week, until August 6. This will also mean an extension to the 10-person limit on gatherings and will affect the 162 towns and cities most affected by the pandemic. In the next few hours, the Government will send the court the epidemiological reports to justify the measure and the new list of affected areas. As announced on Tuesday by government spokeswoman Patricia Plaja towns such as Sitges, Roses and Tàrrega will no longer be affected whereas Figueres, l'Ametlla del Vallès and Terrassa will be added to the list. The restrictions that apply in these towns also involve the closure of all establishments at 00.30, as in the rest of Catalonia.