The new restrictions that the Government wants to impose, among which there is a general closure of activities at 00.30 h and a ten-person limit on gatherings (if approved by the courts) do not convince health professionals. Several professionals have used Twitter as a loudspeaker to criticise measures that, they say, come late and will not stop the advance of the fifth wave. "We are moving towards 80 covid patients, all serious, with bilateral pneumonia and mostly young. This is very similar to the third wave but 30 years younger on average. It's terrible, we are really late!", lamented the head of the service of infectious diseases and coordinator of covid hospitalisations at Hospital del Mar, Robert Güerri.

The explosion of covid-19 cases has already reached hospitals and Catalonia has almost 1,000 patients in hospital, the highest figure for two months. The Department of Health has reported 104 more hospital admissions in the past hours, meaning there are already 980 patients on the ward. In addition, 22 more patients have been moved to intensive care units (ICU), taking the total to 182, mostly aged between 44 and 49 and 60 and 69 and having received either only one dose o no doses of the vaccine.

The rapid spread of the delta variant among young people in Catalonia, at a much higher rate than the Spanish average, has meant that Catalonia's data is now among the worst in Europe. It is difficult to clarify what the reasons are for this exponential increase beyond pointing out that the virus is now affecting unvaccinated population, who also happens to take the most risks. Right now cumulative incidence over the past 14 days in the age range of 20 to 29 in Catalonia exceeds 2,000, and between 12 and 19 is 1,473. These are completely terrifying figures. Fortunately, this increase has not yet caused an increase in mortality, but health centres are overwhelmed (they no longer test asymptomatic close contacts) and hospitals are beginning to notice the first effects of the increase in infections.