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.

Omicron is making it very difficult for schools, which have once again seen their necessary routine disrupted. The explosion in cases in the educational environment, both children and teachers, has become a real problem that is greatly complicating normal running of schools after the holidays. The latest data are worrying: in just one day, 15,000 students have been infected; in the 10 days since the start of the term there have been 99,459 positive cases among students and teaching staff, more than in the whole of last year, when from September to June there were 85,666 cases. It is clear that the contagiousness of the omicron variant makes it spread much faster than previous variants. The fact that it is less dangerous to health does not avoid the feeling of vulnerability that schools across the country have right now, and above all the concern that it generates in educational terms. The reality is that teachers and management teams are currently more concerned about covid than about their work, which inevitably has repercussions on children's learning and, at the same time, on the relationship with families.

Covid-19 transmission is seasonal: it spreads better in winter. This is what a study by the Institut de Salut Global de Barcelona (ISGlobal), published this Thursday in the Nature Computational Science journal which argues that SARS-CoV-2 behaves like the flu and colds caused by other coronaviruses. After collecting data from 162 countries around the world - including regions heavily affected by the virus as Lombardy (Italy), Thuringia (Germany) or Catalonia -, the investigation finds that, in addition to the restrictions adopted, the contagions of the first wave decreased when both the temperature and humidity increased, while in the second wave the positive cases multiplied again when the temperature and humidity had fallen. Under these conditions, they stress, the size of the aerosols is reduced and airborne transmission of the virus is accelerated. The researchers therefore stress the "considerable" contribution of aerosol transmission and the need for measures that promote "air hygiene" (such as better ventilation of rooms or installation of air meters) rather than hand hygiene.

Changes in the Catalan vaccination protocol: from now on people who have had covid can be vaccinated if a minimum of two months since they were infected has passed. Until now, the Department of Health set at six months the period that people with a diagnosis of coronavirus had to wait before they could access the vaccine. Only those over 65 years of age were excluded from this criterion and could be immunised almost immediately after recovering from the infection because they are more likely to suffer complications in case of infection. Now, however, the measure affects all vaccinable age groups, i.e. from the age of 12.

The evolution of the virus in Catalonia begins to show some positive notes. The main one: the incidence is decreasing in all age groups. A fortnight ago it began to reduce the one that had risen the most, the 15-29 age group, but not the one that was most worrying, the over-70s, who have the worst prognosis. However, the latest data show that it is also beginning to fall. "It is good news, we have very clear indicators that they probably are going down, more slowly than young people, but they are going down", celebrates Biocomsc researcher Enric Álvarez, who also highlights another fact: in CAPs (primary healthcare centres) there is no increase in consultations of people over 70 years old and even in those over 80 there is a decrease.

Catalonia is now in the darkest possible shade of red on the EU's contagio map. As every Thursday, the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) has updated its contagion map of Europe of and, in a continent where green already predominates, Catalonia is one of the few regions that is in the maximum risk zone, that is to say, it registers over 500 contagions per 100,000 inhabitants over the past 14 days. The twenty-seven governments of the European Union agreed that it was necessary to "strongly" discourage travel to areas of this darker red, both in origin and at the destination.

Covid does not discriminate between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Everyone can get infected and transmit the virus. What vaccines do do in general is protect people from the most serious forms of the disease: they reduce symptoms, hospitalisations and deaths. Now, the message that has taken hold of part of the population is that being vaccinated allows them to make up for lost time: having an active social life, taking masks off and mixing bubble groups, as if the virus can't infect them. "And this is bad communication: getting vaccinated does not allow you to live a normal life, you have to maintain all protective and preventive measures," warns Salvador Macip, who yesterday learned that he and his family had been infected.

Covid infections have shot up again. In two days they have doubled among young people in Catalonia, with the worst rates of all the State. They are bad news, as the Catalan minister of Health, Josep Maria Argimon, has admitted. Only mass vaccination is preventing what can already be described as the fifth wave from placing us in a scenario like those we have already experienced in the last year and a half: total confinement and hospitals with ICUs at the limit. We are not in this situation now, but this does not mean that we do not have to worry. As in last summer, the de-escalation in the protection measures has coincided with the festival of Sant Joan and has caused a very quick ¡increase in cases. This time the virus is feeding mainly on the young, who are the least protected -that is, the least vaccinated - the least aware of danger and, therefore, the least careful. Now, then, is their time.

From 8 to 77 new infections per week. It is the growth of cases that has been registered in Montblanc in only two weeks and that has caused the whole region to be in a "dangerous situation", according to the investigator of Biocomsc-UPC, Enric Álvarez, who points out that if all Catalonia detected this increase it would return "to the situation that was lived during the first wave". The Department of Health reports that the 144 cases detected since February 16 "would be the result of a grouping that has several outbreaks in different bubbles, some related to each other", and have also affected the educational community: the Institute Martí l'Humà of Montblanc is the one with the highest incidence (8 groups and 204 people in lockdown), followed by schools Martí Poch de L'Espluga de Francolí and Les Muralles de Montblanc, with a group and a score of people in lockdown in each center, according to data from the Education Department.

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.