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The Catalan health authorities have warned this Thursday that primary care is "close to collapse." With the increase in Covid infections, which have skyrocketed to more than 8,000 in the last 24 hours, and given that, on average, nine close contacts are tracked for each positive case, the CatSalut health care system needs to "prioritize" and therefore will not test asymptomatic contacts. People in this situation are urged to stay at home and not go to primary care centres (CAPs) if they are well.

CatSalut director Gemma Craywinckel explained that "in a context of community transmission with a very high volume of cases, the message we need to address is that people who are well and are contacts of confirmed case should stay at home." What the health care leader wants to prevent is large queues from being generated at CAP centres which would cause "people who really need health care to be unable to get attention". However, she announced that close contacts will receive an SMS - not a phone call - and she made it very clear that if asymptomatic people begin to develop conditions, "the system will respond and attend" to these cases.

As part of the Delta variant response plan, Craywinckel also explained that they are working with pharmacies so that antigen tests can be carried out in these spaces, from which the results can also be monitored and transferred to the health care system. That is, the idea would not be for people to be able to buy quick diagnostic tests and self-test at home, but rather, for the test to be performed in the pharmacy itself. The CatSalut director did not specify a date, but said she hopes that "next week" a plan based on this proposition can be presented.

The Delta variant, 60% more transmissible

The Catalan public health secretary, Carmen Cabezas, stressed that the "sudden rise, in the form of a wall" of Covid infections has forced this "reorganization", because CAPs are overwhelmed with care of mild cases. In fact, she warned that the volume of people infected and their close contacts will be "very large", given that the Delta variant is 60% more transmissible than other varieties of Covid-19. For this variant, the secretary explained, the symptoms are similar to those of a common cold.

With regard to people becoming reinfected with the virus, after contracting it previously, the overall percentage stands at 1.1%, and the people who have been infected for a second time despite being fully vaccinated is 0.2%, according to the secretary.

Cabezas spoke openly about the "fifth wave" and expressed concern that they are beginning to detect "repercussions on hospital admissions" and "an increase in the infections of people over 50 who are not yet fully vaccinated." At the same time, she stressed the need to stay home and maintain quarantine, because she admits that there are "cases when it is kept up for 10 days because people receive negative results and that is a false sense of security."

Similarly, and on the vaccination strategy, Carmen Cabezas stressed that the priority now is to "further reinforce" vaccinations in the population aged 40 or over and complete the second doses. The public health secretary estimates that, in the next two weeks, the over 60 age group will reach the point of being almost 100% fully vaccinated. In fact, the estimate is that most vaccines given this week and next will be second doses.

Indicators continue rising rapidly

The explosion of infections in Catalonia continues. Data released this Thursday showed 8,092 new cases confirmed in the last 24 hours. The EPG outbreak risk is now at 1,556 points, the Rt transmission index is at 3.35 and the IA14 is at 479.39, that is 479 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days. Among the 15-29 years old, this rate is now at 1,449 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks, the highest it has been in the whole pandemic.

There are currently 663 people in Catalan hospitals due to Covid, and this number has increased by 53 since the last count. The majority are 29-40 year olds who have not been vaccinated. 

Confirmed cases (blue) and deaths (red) from Covid in Catalonia since the start of the pandemic.

 

Main image: A person undergoes an antigen test at the Vida Festival / ACN.