Some 150,000 people in five municipalities in the Garraf and Baix Penedès regions were confined for more than seven hours this Saturday due to a fire that devastated a swimming pool chemical company. The flames produced a large cloud of smoke containing hydrochloric acid particles, forcing restrictions on movement in Vilanova i la Geltrú, the Roquetas de San Pedro de Ribes area, Cubelles, Cunit, and Calafell from 5:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. While emergency services worked to extinguish the fire, residents were unable to leave their homes and had to close doors and windows to avoid the toxic cloud. Businesses were closed, and all scheduled activities were canceled. Once it was determined that there was no risk to the public, the government lifted the restriction. Air monitoring indicates that there are no more suspended chlorine residues in the area, and the Generalitat Fire Department expects to extinguish the fire in the next few hours.

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.

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".

The Catalan Government plans to pay back €4.6m corresponding to the 24,295 fines handed out for breaking restrictions during the first lockdown. The Department of the Home Affairs will pay back once affected citizens fill out a form which is expected to be made available before Christmas. The operation still needs to be approved by the legal department, and the authorities have ruled out paying any interest on the sums, although experts are not certain this would be legal. The method chosen to return the fines paid (just 17% of those given) tries to respond to one of the consequences of the Constitutional Court's July ruling which declared the state alarm that allowed the lockdown void.

If the mental health of adolescents and young people could be analysed as if it were a patient, the most appropriate diagnosis would be "acute stress and anxiety". Astrid Morer, president of the Catalan Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia, points out that in times of "high social vulnerability and stress" society responds with an increase in relapses or the onset of new disorders, a fact that was already noted in the economic crisis a decade ago. Thirty percent of the population admits that their emotional stability has been affected in this crisis, and the thermometer of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu indicates that the emergency department has attended 50% more young people and, despite the fact that the majority of those who have attended presented with anxiety, psychosis, depression and eating disorders, there has been a notable increase in self-harm and suicide attempts. With the diagnosis in hand, the prescription is to allocate more resources and be more attentive to the evolution of what has been called the new pandemic wave.

Free movement all around Catalonia starting on Monday. The government has decided to lift travel restrictions and allow unrestricted mobility at least until May 3. After ascertaining the feared "Easter effect" did not take place, the executive has also authorised journeys even if they are with members of other cohabitation bubbles. Nevertheless, this should be done in groups of six maximum, wearing masks and guaranteeing good ventilation. The Minister of Home Affairs, Miquel Sàmper, said Easter didn't have a large effect because most people respect the restrictions. However, he has asked the populations to reduce gathering to a minimum and use the easing of restrictions to visit family, such as parents who we have been unable to see for the past fortnight.

Catalonia will maintain seven more days of regional lockdown, which was due to end on Monday. Procicat has approved the new extension after noting that both epidemiological indicators and ICU occupancy are decreasing very timidly, since in the end the dreaded Easter effect has not taken place. "There has not been an explosion of new infections", assured the Secretary of Health, Marc Ramentol, in an appearance in which he coincided with the Minister of Home Affairs, Miquel Sàmper, in congratulating the public for complying with the restrictions, the economic sectors hardest hit by the crisis and the security and emergency teams for the work they have done.

These days it is estimated that internal mobility in Catalonia will have increased significantly and that up to 930,000 vehicles, for example, will have left the metropolitan area. This is the first weekend in which travelling with your cohabitation bubble will be allowed and that this does not involve increasing social interaction, especially indoors. It will be very difficult to monitor everything and police controls have been announced in areas where more crowds of visitors can be expected, but here again the key will be individual responsibility and containment. As Clara Prats, researcher at the BIOCOM-SC of the UPC, explains, the epidemiological situation is not good but we are not in a peak but in a stagnation in the decline: "Now we can do more things than a few weeks ago after three months of sacrifices, but always in a responsible manner. We know how it works after a year of the pandemic. When the situation has been brought under control a little and restrictions are lifted, sometimes too soon, if precautions are not taken, contagions increase again and confinements and restrictions have to be tightened again. It is a loop of frustrations that has health, economic and also emotional consequences. Now that the end is within reach thanks to the slow but constant vaccination, it is worth holding on and taking advantage of these necessary breaths of air without falling into excesses.

Officially, the first wave of covid-19 caused around 28,000 deaths across Spain. Could they have been avoided? A study led by the team of Àlex Arenas, ICREA professor of mathematics and computer engineering at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, reveals that decreeing total lockdown just a week earlier would have limited mortality to only 5,000 cases. On the other hand, if it had been decreed a week later, the total number of deaths could have shot up to 120,000. The time factor, Arenas says, "is key" when the only measures that can be applied to contain the pandemic are non-pharmacological and the incidence follows an exponential growth curve. In other words, lockdown came too late.

The Catalan government has decided to loosen covid restrictions. This includes extending opening times for bars and restaurants (7.30 am to 10:30 am and 1 pm to 4.30 pm). Travelling within counties (comarcas) will also be allowed, although Barcelona City Council's petition for allowing movement all around the metropolitan area has not been granted.

The director of the Catalan Health Service (Servei Català de la Salut), Adrià Comella, warns that the pandemic in Catalonia is now at "a point of very fragile balance", because the care pressure is high after more than 700 people have been admitted to intensive care units (today there are 705). Comella denies, however, that the system is approaching its collapse and trusts that the downward trend of infections will continue in order to lighten hospitals. In an interview with Catalunya Ràdio radio station, he has warned that, in spite of this tendency to contain the contagions, there can be influences of the new variants or of the neighboring communities and has said that if there is a new increase they will have to harden the restrictions.