The covid-19 certificate in Catalonia it will come into effect from 00 hours this Friday. Starting at midnight, people 13 years and older (the vaccine is indicated for those over 12) must show it to enter bars, restaurants, gyms and residences. Until now it was only mandatory in nightlife. “This Thursday night for Friday the digital certificate will come into force “, announced this Monday the ‘Minister’ of Salut, Josep Maria Argimon, at a press conference. Whoever does not have the covid certificate because they are not vaccinated must present, to enter these spaces, a negative diagnostic test or a document that certifies having recently passed the disease.
The extension of the covid pass had to take effect last Friday, but the avalanche of requests in La Meva Salut to download it caused collapses on the web. The Delegate Commission of the Covid-19 of the Government then decided give a few days of margin and meet again this Monday to decide when it would take effect.
“Last Thursday a very high traffic in La Meva Salut. There, security mechanisms came into operation because there were suspicious IP addresses “, Argimon explained. “There they put a series of prevention and safety filters, and the queuing system was put in place “, added the ‘minister’ to justify that many users had to wait hours to download it. Many others did not even manage to do so. Since last Monday, Salut has issued some two million covid certificates.
Pressure on CAPs
“These four days [hasta el viernes] that we give ourselves of margin is for that people download it calmly “, explained Argimon, who has also asked citizens to save the certificate when you download it so you don’t have to do it multiple times. The ‘minister’ has also said that, if on Friday he asked for an extraordinary meeting, it was because people were going to the primary care centers (CAP) to get the covid pass due to the impossibility of doing it through the internet.
“Right now we have the primary care network is very tight and this is not his task. “He himself stressed that Catalonia already diagnoses so many cancer cases as in 2019, after a year and a half of few diagnoses due to saturation caused by the coronavirus.
Even so, Argimon has admitted that he does not know even if the covid certificate will be a “useful tool or not”. “We have not tested this certificate as a control tool. We will see if it helps us not to apply other restrictions,” he said. Thus, although this measure can help “control the pandemic”, It will not be the “solution” of it.
Although the expansion of the covid certificate has not been done to promote vaccination, in recent days some 20,000 people have agreed to be immunized. In fact they have seen queues at some vaccination centers, like the Fira de Barcelona. Argimon has said, even so, that the Government does not have more restrictions on the table, at least for the moment, and that the good part of this situation (with the sixth wave already well into Catalonia and the rest of Spain) is that the high percentage of vaccinated (85% of those over 12 years of age in Catalonia) means that right now there are many fewer people with covid-19 in the ucis (there are 143 this Monday) than last year at this time (then there were 458).
Two suspicions of the omicron
Argimon has also communicated that Catalonia has two suspicions of the omicron variant. These are two people identified at the Barcelona airport who came from South Africa via Germany. “They tested positive for antigens and the samples have been sent to the Bellvitge Hospital. Tomorrow we will know the results “, has assured the ‘minister’.
He himself has recognized that this variant from South Africa, about which there are still many unknowns but which apparently has more mutations than the previous ones and could be more transmissible, it will end up reaching Catalonia, Spain and the rest of Europe. “The border closure is a logical measure, ask PCR It is logical. But that only delays, does not prevent, the spread of the variant, “explained Argimon.
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“We must be patient because we still need to know a lot. On Friday there was a panic situation in the western world, but we still do not know what scope this variant has, “he said, although he acknowledged that,” from the outset, “everything indicates that “There may be more transmissibility.”
However, it is not known at the moment if it causes a more serious disease and if it escapes more to the vaccines. “We must do a lot of screening and keep the restrictions, especially the mask “, has insisted the ‘councilor’ of Salut.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com