Government rules out restrictions in short term despite "terrible" data

Barcelona"The situation is worrying and the data is terrible". This is the Catalan government's diagnosis of the current situation regarding the pandemic. Even so, this Tuesday Catalan executive spokesperson Patrícia Plaja has ruled out the imposition of restrictions in the short term; instead, it will wait to see how contagions evolve over the coming fortnight. The Generalitat is convinced that cases will continue to grow, but it will be the magnitude of this growth that will determine the measures to be taken. This means that, unless there is a drastic change in the situation, there will be no new restrictions over Christmas.

The Generalitat is currently limiting itself to asking that social interaction be minimised in the run-up to Christmas and encouraging mask use, even in open spaces if adequate physical distance cannot be kept. It does not foresee "new measures of significant impact on the daily lives of citizens". Among other reasons, because it is convinced that the requirement to show a covid pass to access bars, restaurants, gyms and nursing homes is working properly.

In fact, Plaja has explained that the Mossos d'Esquadra have made 1,631 inspections to verify the covid pass requirement was being met. So far, only two cases of non-compliance have been discovered. Of the total of inspections, just over a thousand were made in restaurants, nearly 500 in entertainment venues, 22 in gyms and 9 in nursing homes. "There are always those who cheat and those who do not comply," admitted the spokeswoman, who considered that, nevertheless, the balance is positive.

The Government also hopes for success with child vaccination. This Wednesday the campaign the under-11s starts and the Generalitat has called for vaccination of children in this age group out of "social responsibility and to minimise risks". By 11 o'clock today, as Plaja explained, 61,561 appointments had been requested.