The Government is divided between returning to regional lockdown or maintaining the current measures

BarcelonaIt is difficult to know what will happen after Easter with the covid restrictions in Catalonia because the top government officials who will be part of the decision send out opposite messages. The debate is whether to maintain the current measures or tighten them again. The program Via lliure of RAC1 radio station has interviewed this morning, with little time difference, the Home Affairs Minister Miquel Sàmper, and the general secretary of Health, Marc Ramentol. The head of Home Affairs has said that he sees returning to regional lockdown after Easter as a possible option, but the number two of Health has reckoned the fourth wave can be faced with the current restrictions.

Sàmper reminded that the current measures will come to an end next Friday and that next week it will have to be agreed, within the framework of Procicat, what can be done from the following weekend onwards. The minister has for days maintained the possibility of restricting mobility again - now it is allowed to move between regions with a single bubble of coexistence -, despite the fact that Health is moving away from it. Ramentol considered that if citizens respect the measures "it is very likely that the rate of increase will not abandon this linear growth", sustained but not vertiginous, so that the health system could assume it. The EPG remains at 284 and the R number has dropped to 1.20.

Another restriction that could change is the curfew. Sàmper is in favour of moving it back one hour: it could start at 11 pm instead of 10 pm. Despite the media debate in recent days, both the Spanish and Catalan regulations on the use of face masks - which have been in force since July - provide for the same exceptions, i.e. they do not explicitly refer to beaches or swimming pools.

Those over 80 years, vaccinated

Ramentol has explained that the forecast of Health is that next week the vaccination of all people over 80 years who want to receive the first dose will finish. He has also called on people between 60 and 65 years old who want to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca until Monday, to request an appointment through vacunacovidsalut.cat because there are still 13,000 free appointments. Catalunya is about to reach the administration of first million doses of the various covid-19 vaccines available, as 996,276 had already been administered by Friday.