Nightclubs will be able to reopen in Catalonia from Friday 11 February and will do so with fewer restrictions than last autumn, the last time they were allowed to. The covid certificate will no longer be required to enter nightclubs venues – a requirement that also ceased to apply in bars, restaurants, gyms and care homes – and establishments will be allowed to fill up and reach 100% of capacity – previously there was a 70% cap – there will be no restrictions on opening times and dancing will be allowed without keeping safe distances. The only measure that will be maintained, which is regulated by a state decree, is the obligation to wear a mask inside, except when drinking.

What happens if someone drinks inside a bar but does not have a covid pass? And if they have used someone else's certificate? Since last Friday, both actions are subject to fines. However, no fines have been handed down in the first days the requirement has come into force. So far Catalonia has avoided heavy-handed policing of the measure: although it is two months since covid passes becane compulsory to enter nightclubs, the police are yet to issue a single fine. In fact, businesses are confident that the Catalan Government will not be strict in its control of the covid pass requirement, because they point out that the regulation is ambiguous and that they have reached an agreement with the administration to be flexible in order to facilitate its application.

As every Friday two friends queue up at the cafeteria after having gone for their hour's walk to keep their "legs and mind" in shape. The ritual is the same as always, but today they have their covid pass with them: this Friday it will be compulsory to show it to access bars, restaurants, gyms and care homes. Rosa Casas and Núria Garcia are 72 and 75, and they are totally independent, but, like a large number of elderly people – "you can call us old ladies", they say – the need to obtain this QR code to continue living a normal life has been an added concern for them. "My daughter did it for me when she came home, because even though I tried I couldn't get it," complains Garcia, who says she "gets angry" when she has to "bother the children" to get them to solve her problems. Casas was helped by her husband, who had taken an "internet course" for the elderly.

In Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia there is a bar run by a very angry man who looks like something out of a Coen brothers movie: "We haven't asked to see a covid certificate nor will we", he exclaims, masked in blue and red-faced, when he hears that this Friday is the first day that the covid pass is a requirement to access bars, restaurants, gyms and nursing homes. Next door, the owner of a family cafeteria is less irritated, but does not hide a certain helplessness: "I'm alone in the bar and either I serve customers or man the door, but I can't do all at once," he says. "Anyway," he adds, "I know the customers here, in general. And if I don't know them, I serve them first and then ask them": sometimes the order you do things in does make a difference.

Showing a covid pass will no longer be compulsory to enter bars, restaurants, gyms and visit nursing homes. Only a few hours after it came into force, the Health Department has decided to temporarily suspend the new requirement due to technical issues that prevented users from downloading the document on the La Meva Salut website. In an urgent statement, the department has put the decision on hold until the trouble with the website is solved. Tens of thousands of citizens joined the virtual queue for the website, leading to long waiting times. The covid pass thus remains a requirement to access to nightclubs (it already was since October) and to travel within the EU. A new assessment of the situation will be made on Friday and a new date for the measure to come into force will be set.

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 Government will request Catalonia's High Court to authorise a requirement to show a covid pass to access bars and restaurants, as well as gyms and nursing homes. This document shows whether a person has been vaccinated, has recently recovered from the disease or tested negative. This requirement is already in place for nightclubs, but the Generalitat wants it to be compulsory for all activities that take place in enclosed spaces or considered risky in preparation for the December bank holiday weekend. "More covid certificate to avoid new restrictions," summed up government spokeswoman Patricia Plaja.

In just one week, there has been a 57% increase in new covid diagnoses in Catalonia, with new hospital admissions going up by a third. The curve of the sixth wave is beginning to take shape, but if it finally does shoot up, its effects are expected to be much milder than in previous waves. This would be thanks to vaccination, which has reached 74.8% of the population. "We are at a medium level of concern: the scenario after the summer with small outbreaks has changed and cases are growing in a generalized, but moderate way," explains the physicist of the Computational Biology and Complex Systems Group (Biocomsc), Clara Prats. However, the experts consulted warn that we cannot rely on vaccination –which does not prevent contagion– and that we must take extreme precautions to prevent the surge from getting out of control. "We have to be psychologically prepared to take steps backwards, but now we still have time for less harmful options than resorting to the closure of sectors or lockdowns. The first is to extend the use of the covid certificate," says Salvador Macip, a doctor and researcher at the University of Leicester .

A member of a Telegram group with more than 2,400 people, in which calls for street drinking parties have been made in recent weeks, sends the following message: "We make covid certificates with two vaccines. Write me for more information". Another user replies that it is easier to get vaccinated, but he questions if he knows what they put in the doses and assures him that they carry "a lot of s*it". In a conversation with another, he dares to say that vaccines are free because they kill. "Wash your eyes, my friend", he adds. The denialist discourse of the covid passport forger apparently doesn't quite capture the attention of the group's members, but if we send him a private message, he explains that he can make a certificate for 550 euros.

Catalonia High Court has authorised requiring a covid pass to access nightclubs, the last step needed before they can reopen tonight. The Catalan government authorised nightclubs to reopen their indoor spaces as long as clients show their covid pass before entering. The use of this document, however, required court backing as it affects fundamental rights. This morning, the Prosecutor's Office positioned itself in favour of the measure, which it considers "necessary, appropriate and proportionate". The High Court agreed.

The Catalan Government has proposed reopening nightclubs withing days, with revellers having to present the covid pass to access premises. According to RAC1, the measure would come into force on October 8, but the Government claims "the date is not definite". According to government spokeswoman Patrícia Plaja, the administration is considering the reopening of clubs "in the upcoming weeks" with compulsory "use of the covid pass", a measure that will have to be endorsed by Catalonia's High Court. Last week the Generalitat announced a partial opening of nightlife: only in outdoor spaces until 3.00 am and without dancing. "Today we are closer than last week to the reopening," Plaja said, who on several occasions clarified that the specific date has not been decided "due to legal and health issues".

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".

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).

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.

Portugal, France and Italy haven't given it much thought. Neither have Galicia nor the Canary Islands. Germany is hesitating; Catalonia, too. Countries that have implemented covid certificates want to make things difficult for those who do not want to be vaccinated. This means making it hard for them to access leisure; for example, they are not allowed to access bars and restaurants unless the have a negative test result or have been vaccinated. This is the aim of the compulsory nature of this new certificate. The reduction in rights it entails is offset by the greater good of making progress in the fight to defeat the coronavirus. The collective objective takes precedence over individual freedoms. This is always a complicated debate. In health issues, however, we have already seen it on other occasions and contexts, such as the ban on smoking indoors, now fully accepted but which at the time aroused much controversy.