The Prosecutor's Office accuses former senior officials of the Department of Health of "discriminating" against the national police officers and civil guards stationed in Catalonia by vaccinating them against COVID-19 much later than the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police officers). The incidents date back to March 2021, when Alba Vergés was a minister. The then director general of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), who later became a minister, is also accused of disqualification from holding any public office.

October is the new date set by the Girona-based company Hipra to obtain authorisation for its vaccine against covid-19. The company's R&D director, Èlia Torroella, had said that they expected to receive the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) approval between June and July, but they have now been asked for more data. "The situation has been changing and different requirements have been made at different times, and in our case they have asked us to provide more information. We know what they want, we will provide it, and we are convinced that the vaccine will be part of vaccination plans in the autumn," Torroella emphasised, in reference to the Ministry of Health's plans to start administering the fourth dose to the over 60 and to healthcare personnel after the summer.

Our call is answered by an assistant with an executive air who, once she has checked that everything is in order,at the time we had agreed upon, brings on screen Dr. Özlem Türeci (Lastrup, Germany, 1967), co-founder and medical director of BioNTech, the company from which, together with Pfizer, she was able to develop one of the vaccines against covid-19. Dr. Türeci attends this interview from Mainz and expresses herself with the clarity of someone who is used to explaining scientific concepts with profane expressions and the simplicity of those who have achieved gigantic success. The biographical notes on this researcher and entrepreneur of Turkish parents present her as one of the richest women in Germany (it is estimated that in 2022 alone Pzifer-BioNTech will have a turnover of 37.77 billion euros for the covid vaccine). Özlem Türeci received the Catalonia 2020 International Award this week, which honored her and three other women, all fighters against the coronavirus.

Pharmaceutical company Hipra, based in Girona, has developed a vaccines which offers "good results and resistance" against the Omicron variant –the dominant variant in Catalonia– according to the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, during a visit to the company in Amer (Selva). The company has been working for months on a new vaccine and expects to start its third phase of clinical trials midway through this month, if it receives the endorsement of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS). At this stage it would be tested on 3,000 volunteers, with the collaboration of 15 hospitals in Spain and "other countries," according to Morant.

When 2020 was just beginning, the existence of companies like BioNTech or Moderna was unknown to most mortals. Also unknown then was the importance that pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca would gain in our daily lives in the fight against the pandemic that was officially declared on March 11, 2020.

One year after Josefa Pérez received the first vaccine against coronavirus at the Feixa Llarga nursing home in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, more than 6,200,000 Catalans have followed in her footsteps. After 12 months of titanic effort, health workers in Catalonia have administered more than 13,400,000 doses which, according to the Health Department's calculations, have reduced the number of infections, hospitalisations, admissions to intensive care units and, above all, deaths. One of the main differences between the nine months of the pandemic before the vaccines and this past year has been the decrease in deaths, according to the Department of Health, which estimates that vaccines have prevented 10,000 deaths in Catalonia.

Details of Catalonia's plan to vaccinate 5-11-year-olds have become known today. As already announced, it will begin on December 15 and it will be carried out in mass vaccination points and only by appointment. The Health Department has decided not to use schools, and has decided against vaccinating older children first.

The evolution of the pandemic in northern Europe has once again put everyone on alert. Covid-19, as expected, has not disappeared and, therefore, at the slightest opportunity it is spreading again among the least protected people, either because they have not been vaccinated – a percentage which in some countries is so high that it makes us fear another dramatic winter – or because the vaccine's effect has started to wear off. Faced with this situation, there are two clear strategies that, this time, have been implemented throughout the European Union, at least as recommendations to member states. On Wednesday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommended bringing back some restrictions and, above all, injecting a booster dose to the over-40s. In addition, this Thursday the European Medicines Agency has backed the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, where the biggest rise in infections was seen. This measure has already been approved in the United States and also in Israel.

The debate on whether or not to force workers to get vaccinated against covid-19 is back in the spotlight. Last Thursday Italy approved a decree that forced all employees in both public and private companies. as well as the self-employed, to get a covid pass from October 15. This shows that they have received at least one dose of the vaccine or that they have had the disease. This Monday morning, it was the president of the Catalan employer association Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who spoke in favour of applying this measure in Spain in an interview with TVE: "There is a 3% or 4% of the Spanish and Catalan workforce that could have got vaccinated and has not done so, and this can hinder companies' full economic recovery," he said. Then he added: "I think it would be good to make it compulsory, but it is a decision that is in the hands of the government and doctors".

In the nine months since the vaccination campaign against covid started, it has gone from not having enough doses to go round to not having enough people willing to get vaccinated to use up the doses it has. The department of Health keeps a stock of doses in refrigerators -without having made explicit the exact number- which have already expired or are about to expire, while the pace of vaccination has stagnated and the end of the summer holidays has not led to the expected upturn in uptake.

To start the school year with two thirds of students fully vaccinated. This is one of the short-term objectives of the Department of Health, which estimates that 68% of the school-age population - aged between 12 and 19 years - has received a dose of the vaccine and 53%, more than half, have already received the full course of vaccination against covid. Figures which, as noted by the Secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas, on Wednesday at a press conference, are expected to increase in the coming days. The Health Dpt, however, also wants to accelerate vaccination in the community of university students, and for this reason the department will install walk-in vaccination points "in most" universities in the territory. The first that has been launched is the Bellaterra campus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which opened on Wednesday.

"Getting vaccinated is an act of love", Pope Francis recently said in a message to Latin America, in which he invited people to get vaccinated against coronavirus in the "hope" of being able to "end the pandemic". It was not the first time the pontiff had called for a vaccine to fight covid-19, but even he has failed to convince many members of the Catholic Church. It is a very noisy minority, encouraged by the far right against the health passport and the compulsory nature of the vaccine, which from the pulpit of a parish or from the anonymity of social networks launch slogans against immunisation and contribute to spreading dangerous hoaxes.

Different countries, such as France, Italy and Portugal, have started to ask for the covid certificate, also called covid passport -which certifies the complete vaccination schedule or a recent negative test-, to enter some areas. Catalonia, for the moment, has ruled it out. "It has not yet been possible to vaccinate everyone"; argued the Catalan Minister of Health, Josep Maria Argimon, at the opening ceremony of the Catalan Summer University (UCE) in Prades. But soon all Catalans over the age of 12 will have had the opportunity to be immunised with the full vaccination schedule and, therefore, the covid certificate will no longer discriminate against those who until now have not had access to the vaccines. "A few months ago it was unfair, but now everyone can be vaccinated and the debate has changed: it would not be unreasonable to apply some kind of restriction for those who are not immunised", says Salvador Macip, a doctor and professor of health sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC).

Neither health authorities nor epidemiologists hide their concern for September, when schools reopen and those who are still on holidays go back to work. With the recovery of the routine, which involves more mobility, a more intensive use of public transport and increased interaction in closed environments, the risk of contagion will also increase. And in Catalonia, which is slowly emerging from an unprecedented fifth wave due to the volume of accumulated infections (239,975 cases in just two months), the epidemiological situation is already serious: 9,000 positive cases are still being diagnosed every week and hospitals are treating 456 critically ill patients. With this explosive cocktail of high incidence and massive return to normality, the experts consulted by the ARA expect a new wave in autumn. Even the Catalan Health minister, Josep Maria Argimon, admitted on Tuesday that it a resurgence in Catalonia is "very likely".

The Department of Health has launched a system so that from this Thursday people who have been vaccinated abroad can prove that they have the full schedule and obtain their vaccination certificate of vaccination. This was announced on Catalunya Ràdio by the head of the Public Health Agency's Preventive Medicine service, Montse Martínez Marcos, who explained citizens have been vaccinated outside Catalonia or Spain can go to their Primary Care Centers (CAP) to provide the necessary data to generate the QR code that will allow them to prove that they are fully vaccinated.

The vaccination page used in Catalonia to make or change appointments allowed access to third-party data. The Department of Health solved the problem just over a week ago and claims that during the months this security breach was in place no information was leaked. "There has been no incident in the VacunaCovid page leading to third parties gaining access to information on other citizens," the department stated in response to questions by ARA.

From shortly before eight o'clock in the morning, people between 30 and 34 years old can already make an appointment to get vaccinated at the website enabled by the Health Department in one of fifty facilities across the territory. Those born between 1987 and 1991 can enter their data on the website and book a time, day and point of vaccination among those available. At the same time, primary care centres will also be sending text messages (SMS) so they can receive the first dose of vaccine. This group will be administered Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The system will inform the user of the drug to be administered at the time of the appointment.