The microbiology service of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid has reported the first confirmed Omicron case in Spain this Monday afternoon. Madrid's Health Department explained the 51-year-old man, who arrived in Madrid from South Africa on November 28, having made a stopover in Amsterdam, is "well with mild symptoms".

Brexit is not just a political decision that causes chaos at petrol stations, a shortage of butchers or lorry drivers or all kinds of missing items in supermarkets. Brexit is a state of mind that clouds understanding and unleashes the absurd. And there is more: not only does it discriminate between nationals and non-nationals even if they have been living in the UK for decades, but the discrimination reaches irrational and unjustifiable limits.

The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, announced this afternoon that from Friday on Catalonia "will take a giant step" to return to normality and "most of the restrictions still in force will be left behind". The President specified that universities, congresses, libraries and cultural events will now be able to have 100% capacity. Open-air sporting events will also return to 100% capacity, while those held in sports halls will have to remain at 80%. As for restaurants, in addition to ending the capacity limitations, they will recover their opening hours. The limitation of having a maximum of ten people per table and the distance between customers will also be abolished. As for nightlife, the restrictions will remain the same and a covid passport will be required to enter the premises.

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.

After the large crowds after the first night without curfew, the situation was more "normal" yesterday in Barcelona, as explained by City Security Councillor Albert Batlle in an interview with Radio 4. The police dispersed 1,639 people from places like the Passeig del Born, Plaça de la Virreina de Gràcia or Plaça dels Àngels, as confirmed to ARA by municipal sources, while Saturday night the police had to disperse about 6,500 people in various outdoor celebrations. According to Batlle, what was experienced in the streets on Saturday night could not be avoided because people, after so many months of curfew, were eager to go out, and the police deployed saturation devices that sought to limit gatherings, but did not hand out fines to those gathering. Batlle detailed that in total there were 450 agents deployed and that this was "manifestly insufficient" for the number of people who were on the street. "We can not have a police officer for each person," he admitted.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has had to come out on Tuesday in the face of the avalanche of European countries which, after eleven serious cases of thrombosis, have preventively suspended the application of the vaccine developed by the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, developed by Oxford Laboratories. The director of this European agency, Emer Cooke, has appeared at a press conference to calm the waters and send a message of confidence to the public. According to Cooke, "a situation like this is not unexpected" and, for the fourth time, reiterates that at this point the benefits of administering the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh its risks because the detected cases of thrombosis are very rare.