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.

It took five years, but a judge has finally admitted a complaint from the relatives of COVID-19 victims who died during the pandemic in Madrid nursing homes due to a protocol that stipulated they should not be transferred to the hospital, and has charged the two responsible parties. Remember, this represents 7,291 people, a figure that has become sadly popular and one that Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government has tried to minimize on more than one occasion. The judge has summoned Carlos Mur and Francisco Javier Martínez Peromingo to testify next Monday. The former was Director of Social and Health Coordination for the Madrid government when the health crisis began and signed the so-called "protocol of shame." The latter—according to victims' organizations—coordinated the technical protocol that complemented the former and replaced Mur in the position starting in May 2020.

More than five years later, justice begins to settle accounts for The 7,291 people who died in the Community of Madrid's nursing homes During the pandemic, for the first time, two former senior officials in Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government will have to testify as suspects in a judicial proceeding, according to a statement from two victims' associations. And legal sources confirm this. Throughout this time, the Madrid president has avoided self-criticism regarding her administration's actions during COVID-19.

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.

Walking through the streets of Japan, one can notice that there are generally few trash cans. This fact is surprising to tourists given the cleanliness of most streets. He replied, "It doesn't just bother tourists, it bothers the Japanese themselves." The question we should ask, then, is another: why are there so few trash cans in Japan? Japanese means "supreme truth." Five members of the sect spread across three different lines of the Tokyo subway during rush hour in the morning. They inhaled the gas, as it is toxic. The criminals punctured the bags so the gas would spread into the atmosphere. Some of the plastic bags were strategically placed in trash cans. The Japanese government's security policies. And one of the measures they decreed was the elimination of trash cans, urging the population to try to throw away all the garbage in their private homes or other buildings, even if that meant taking it along the street

Alicia Andrés He remembers the "tension" and "fear" that were experienced in the hospital. On March 12, 2020, she gave birth to her first child, Liam. A nurse entered the room in tears and told her and her partner that no one was to touch the baby and that they should hurry home. Alicia's parents had driven from Málaga, where they live, to meet their first grandchild. The next day, they were retracing their steps to return before the roads were closed. On March 14, 2020, a state of emergency was declared due to the COVID pandemic. Gemma was separated from her daughter She was only born because she tested positive for COVID. I could only pick her up to breastfeed her. According to the restrictive protocol that was then in place and later relaxed, babies had to be separated from COVID-positive mothers, skin-to-skin contact was not allowed, they were forced to maintain a distance of two meters between the bed and the crib, and the umbilical cord was cut early. Laura gave birth alone, was strapped down during the C-section, was not allowed to hold her daughter, and found no help with the difficult breastfeeding process.

Five years after COVID-19 caused a global alarm, many unknowns remain about how it originated. The hypothesis that has been widely defended in several scientific articles points to a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan as the epicenter of the pandemic, but there are still voices that defend the theory that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease came from a Chinese laboratory. This week, two German newspapers reported that the country's intelligence agency prepared a report in 2020 that pointed to the laboratory hypothesis, although the government, then led by conservative Angela Merkel, never made it public.

Although five years have passed since the outbreak of the pandemic, for many people, the coronavirus is still not a thing of the past. Long-term COVID keeps many people trapped in the disease, and in most cases, this means experiencing symptoms for at least two years. This is the minimum amount of time that 56% of people with long-term COVID spend sick, according to a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), in collaboration with the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP). In fact, There are those affected who, five years later, have not been cured..

The Community of Madrid was one of the European territories with the highest number of deaths during the pandemic and where life expectancy was most reduced. Epidemiologist Fernando García López explains this a few pages later. And that's not to mention the 7,291 people who were denied transfer to hospital and died in nursing homes. Or that the then Director General of Health, Yolanda Fuertes, resigned because she did not agree with the opening policy imposed by President Isabel Díaz Ayuso... And yet, in the 2023 regional elections, Ayuso won an absolute majority and nearly 50% of the votes.

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.

This month marks our birthday, as it's been five years since the lockdown due to Covid. It seems a long time ago, but there are people who were infected in the first wave and still have Covid today. They are the forgotten victims of persistent Covid, some of whom were nurses and healthcare workers who now see themselves left by the wayside. We also review what has changed after the pandemic in various areas, we see how the vaccine revolution has turned out and we talk to epidemiologist Fernando García López about what was done well and what was done badly, with Madrid in the spotlight.

Up to 11,977,277 tourists and nearly 33 million overnight stays in hotels and tourist apartments. This is the record figure with which Barcelona ended 2019 (counting only official accommodation), when covid had not yet reared its head and forecasts pointed to the fact that these numbers could be repeated and even surpassed in 2020. The city's tourism councillor, socialist Xavier Marcé, defended then, as he repeats now, that the city has to work to expand the perimeter that welcomes these visitors – that is, to send them also to the periphery – and to spread their stays throughout the year, rather than concentrating on the tourist season. The pandemic made any analysis of the evolution impossible: 2020 was disastrous in all areas, including, of course, tourism, and in 2021, when restrictions were slightly eased, a total of 4.5 million tourists visited the city.

There are as many as 25 premises with their shutters down, seven of them sporting to-let signs, in a stretch of just over 300 metres between the Rambla and Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona. Some are boarded up and full of graffiti after staying closed for months. Carrer Ferran is a prime example of the devastation the pandemic has wrought on the Barcelona's Barri Gòtic. The situation, despite not representing the neighbourhood as a whole – where around 75% of shops have reopened, according data collected by Barnacentre – is better than the one described by this newspaper last spring, when almost twice as many shops were closed. But neighbours and shopkeepers in the area complain that the pandemic has finished off long-standing bars and shops, and brought in even more shops selling souvenirs (three on Carrer Ferran alone) or mobile phone cases (one taking the spot where last year a hardware store had opened).

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.

First the pandemic and now the crisis in Ukraine. The third sector in Europe is being forced to rethink – and digitise – by leaps and bounds in order to serve all those in need. And Alfonso Lara Montero has even been asked to explain this at the Mobile World Congress (MWC). He is the director of the European Social Network, a European network that brings together the managers of the main third sector organisations in the continent. He arrived in Barcelona thanks to m4Social, organised by the Catalonia's Committee for the Third Sector, and talks to ARA as the big question of how to take care of the refugees from the war in Ukraine takes hold in the public debate.

A series of rankings to demonstrate the strength of the city of Barcelona internationally. The City Council and the Chamber of Commerce have presented this Thursday the Barcelona Observatory of 2021, a compilation of 34 indicators for the years 2020 and 2021 that in general terms show the city's good situation, which returns, for example, to the top 20 of the world's most competitive cities, according to the Mori Memorial Foundation's Global Power City Index 2021. Barcelona has climbed to 18th place after five years outside the top 20. And it also comes out well placed if you look at the expectations of visitors and entrepreneurs: it ranks ninth on the global table, according to the report by Resonance Consultancy. And seventh place in attracting technological investment in Europe ($1.5bn), in a ranking that is clearly dominated by London ($18.4bn) and in which Madrid is three places behind the Catalan capital. "The city is coming out of the pandemic strong," concluded deputy mayor Jaume Collboni, who presented Barcelona as "the best" city in which to invest in southern Europe and highlighted projects such as the new 22@ to attract more technological investment.

The idea that we are moving towards the end of covid restrictions is beginning to take hold. This is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it serves to move towards a certain social normality and, therefore, also to encourage the much-needed economic recovery; on the other hand, it may give the impression that the pandemic has been overcome and that no measures need to be taken, which is not yet the case. Epidemiological data have begun to decline, but we are still at very high levels of infection and a long way from emptying ICUs and hospitals. Therefore, we cannot confuse wishful thinking with reality, nor should we rush more than necessary, as has already happened in other phases of this long health crisis that has claimed too many lives. It is therefore in this middle ground that the Government's announcement to suspend quarantines in schools in the near future and to reopen nightlife as of February 11 must be understood. In the first case, it is a request from both paediatricians and families; both would also like the compulsory use of masks for children in the playground and classrooms to expire, which will not happen yet. It seems prudent to postpone it a little longer and make it coincide with the moment when it will also cease to be mandatory for adults in the street. It is true that, after so many months, a few more weeks won't make a difference: we can assume the inconvenience for a while longer. The day masks come off there will be a strong sense of psychological liberation that could be mistaken for an end to the pandemic. Therefore, it is better not to whip up false euphoria. It is true that there are countries that have stepped on the accelerator of the end of restrictions. Denmark would be the most remarkable case, but it is a country that has made very radical changes throughout the health crisis, and they have not always worked.

No respite in contagions or quarantines for schools. Today, there is a total of 120,277 teachers and students in isolation in Catalonia –almost 8% of Catalan students are forced to stay at home–, about 20,000 more than yesterday, and also more than 20,000 more positive cases than yesterday. The number of schools that have been forced to close is also growing steadily (currently seven, most of them rural schools or nurseries) as is the number of full classes that have been sent home (181, 23 more than yesterday). Management is struggling to process sick leave as there have been over 1,000 positives among teachers in the last 24 hours. Altogether it is overwhelming schools as never before.

Data highlights the explosion in case numbers detected in schools: in just one day more than 15,000 infected students have been detected, the number of groups forced to isolate has almost doubled (from 78 to 158 in 24 hours) and about 7% of professionals working in schools are infected. The situation is pushing the centres –completely overwhelmed by the management of cases and sick leave– and families, who have many doubts about how to proceed, with constant changes. Even so, the Health Department assures that the changes in the protocol will stay in place. "The protocol in schools is working. Presentiality is a value that we want to defend to the maximum," said the secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas. Catalan Health minister Josep Maria Argimon gave data: if the whole group were isolated when a positive case was detected in the classroom, now there would be 600,000 children not attending school. "And this would be a huge problem for families, let's be clear," he added. Right now there are 93,826 students and 7,409 teachers in isolation.