Starting next Monday, covid diagnostic efforts will focus on protecting the population most vulnerable to the virus: the elderly, the over-60s, people with serious illnesses (e.g. immunodepressed) and pregnant women. After the Spanish Ministry of Health approved the elimination of quarantines for asymptomatic or mildly ill people, the Generalitat has announced that from next week, people with symptoms compatible with coronavirus who do not suffer from any condition which makes them vulnerable will not need to be tested at their health centre or, if they self-diagnosed, to undergo strict isolation, although it is recommended that they stay at home until symptoms subside.

People with mild or no symptoms who received a positive result from an antigen test taken at home may notify their result to the approximately 1,300 pharmacies in Catalonia (40% of the total) which already carry out supervised rapid tests. Until now this information had to be reported to primary health centres and the 061 hotline, so that the result could be included in patients' medical history, close contacts informed and sick leave given. Now, however, if a person tests positive with an over-the-counter test they can call a pharmacy authorised by the Department of Health, which already have access to the medical records. Patients will need to identify themselves with their ID or health card number and indicate the brand of the test which was taken.

Catalonia recovers covid tracing. The Department of Health will once again carry out diagnostic tests on close contacts of positive cases, also in schools, after the unprecedented volume of infections in the fifth wave forced them to suspend them due to the impossibility of tracing the chains of transmission. The downward trend in the number of infections that has been occurring over the last few weeks will allow for the recovery of this epidemiological control and traceability measure as of next Monday.