Catalonia begins ten decisive days for the evolution of the pandemic. The number of new infections continues to fall - in two weeks it has gone from more than 14,000 cases per week to 10,000 - but the R number is rising: from 0.88 to 1.03 in seven days, which means that every 100 new positives infect 103 people. Likewise, the percentage of positive tests has risen again: from 4.30% to 5.30%, when the WHO states that being above 5% means that not enough tests are being done. In fact, in 15 days the number of PCR and antigen tests carried out has been reduced by 30%: from 295,000 to 210,000, between 16 and 22 February.

The majority of covid infections are occurring in family environments. The outbreaks that originate in homes or in sporadic meetings between members of the same family and close acquaintances account for 51.5% of the outbreaks reported by the Public Health Agency. In fact, according to the latest report of this agency, the number of outbreaks in the family far exceeds those identified in schools (15.8%), nursing homes (10.2%) and the workplace (9.3%), both in frequency and number of people affected. "Everything suggests that this responds to the increased circulation of the British variant", explains the head of microbiology at the Hospital de la Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, Tomàs Pumarola. The variant, he notes, "is rising strongly in Catalonia. Before, when the virus entered a home, it affected a percentage of the members, but now the variant is transmitted better and it affects everyone".

It was the night of December 31 when the medical director of the Hospital de Olot, Jaume Heredia, received an urgent call from those responsible for the center. They had detected that two professionals working in the covid unit had tested positive and that there were two non-covid patients with symptoms. "All the alarms went off: in six months we had had virtually no cases of transmission and, suddenly, two workers and two patients had been infected", Heredia recalls, who explains that they followed the protocol and made a screening throughout the hospital. The result: ten patients and three professionals infected, which increased the following days to seventeen patients and eleven workers.

It is already evident that the variant identified in the United Kingdom, which is more contagious than the original Wuhan variant, is spreading throughout Catalonia. Unfortunately, we cannot be surprised that this is the case. In areas such as Garrotxa, Pla de l'Estany and Gironès the evidence is beginning to be worrying. It is suspected that the Vall d'Aran could be in the same situation, but there is still no reliable data. To a lesser extent, it is also happening in the Vallès Occidental, Vallès Oriental and Baix Llobregat. Specifically, in Banyoles 50% of the wastewater samples are of this variant, and 30% in Olot. In the Besòs wastewater treatment plant, the largest in the state, the characteristic gene of this mutation already makes up 15%. In Barcelona city, 9% of the samples analysed are of the British variant. Thus, given its rapid spread - its spread around Catalonia has occurred in just 20 days - all precautions are few. The residences and hospitals where it has penetrated have painfully experienced how the protection protocols hitherto in force have fallen short. It has caught them unawares because, despite complying with the restrictions, they have been left vulnerable. Therefore, there is no choice but to redouble vigilance with stricter measures, and it must be done urgently, preventively, without waiting to detect more cases. It is time to opt for safer masks, for a more intensive maintenance of air conditioners, for more natural ventilation where it is not counterproductive, for fewer visits and maximum control of these visits ... It would be necessary, in this sense, that the Department of Health of the Generalitat give clear instructions and adequate means to deal with this variant. And not only this, because on Wednesday the first case of the South African variant was detected, which, like the British variant, is also more contagious. We cannot exclude that cases of the Brazilian variant will also be detected in time.