From this Friday, the key Covid-19 restrictions that were still in force in Catalonia will disappear and the permitted occupancy of spaces will return to 100% for outdoor sports (including football stadiums), cultural and entertainment venues, bars and restaurants. In the end, the Catalan government has loosened its grip and come into line with most other Spanish autonomous communities that had already ended their restrictions at the end of September due to the positive evolution of vaccination and the fall in the number of hospital beds filled and intensive care admissions due to the coronavirus.
This marks the final step toward having all the productive wheels turning again at a good rate after so many months of openings countered by restrictions, then further openings and unforeseen closures. Now it really can be stated that we are moving from the "new normal" to a situation that resembles, more than at any other time, what we had at the onset of coronavirus. And with that, the phase of emergency that Catalonia was in, steps back to be just a phase of alert.
President Pere Aragonès's announcement comes at a time when the Spanish economy is once again showing worrying symptoms, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowering its growth forecast for July by 0.5% on Tuesday, leaving it at 5.7%, while we are also in the midst of massive uncertainties over energy prices, the inflation crisis and the turbulence arriving from China amid great debate over whether the Asian country is on the verge of a huge crisis in its property market.
Masks will continue to be obligatory in enclosed spaces and 100% capacity will still not be possible for those at indoor sports events (80%) and nightlife venues (70%), with Covid certificates still being required in the latter case. Meanwhile, many months of waiting for the Covid passport to enter into force do not seem to have been enough to avoid the malfunctions that are occurring with Catalan citizens vaccinated in other countries, many of them young Erasmus students vaccinated in third countries, who have not been able to obtain the frustrating document.
The good news implied by the end of the restrictions is only missing the icing on the cake of jolting into action the consciousnesses of those yet to be vaccinated. The experts believed that introducing the Covid certificate for nightlife activities would cause some movement among the age groups with lower percentages vaccinated. This has not been the case and the percentage fully vaccinated in Catalonia stands at 82% among all those over 12 and 73.1% of the population as a whole, but the group with the lowest level, those aged between 20 and 34, is only about 65% vaccinated. These are good figures compared to other countries around us such as Germany or France, but still insufficient to achieve a completely reassuring situation.