COVID-19 crisis, what are the summer 2021 forecasts?

For over a year, the Covid-19 health crisis has impacted our living and working conditions. After several confinement, restrictions hardened and then relaxed, a curfew.. The situation now seems to be moving in the right direction. 

To date, Spain has recorded nearly 3.5 million infections and more than 78,000 deaths. 

The state of emergency was lifted on May 9 at midnight, putting an end to the curfew and various restrictions that were in effect in most regions. Travel between regions and between autonomous communities has resumed. As for bars and restaurants, they can now open until midnight, with however, gauges of 4 people per table indoors and six people per table outdoors.

Here are some forecasts; notably on the schedule of vaccinations but also on the possible resumption of tourist activity.

Summer 2021: 

• Use of the European Covid certificate, or submit negative results of a PCR test of less than 72 hours in order to return to Spanish territory. 
• Wearing the mask is mandatory, unless present on the beach, its wearing will be mandatory during walks or if safety distances cannot be maintained. 
• No quarantine required for foreign tourists. 
• Spain hopes to attract around 45 million foreign tourists this summer 2021. 
• In order to ensure mobility, the European health pass should enter into force from June 2021.

Provisional vaccination: 

• To date, 8.7 million vaccine doses have been distributed across the country. 2.8 million people received the doses needed to start the full vaccination process, about 12% of the Spanish population began vaccination, and 6% completed it.
• 5 million people will be immunized in early May, double in the first week of June; 15 million in mid-June; 25 million a month later and finally 33 million at the end of August. 
• Target: 70% of the immunized population by summer 2021.
• Even when subjected to 50% or 70% gauges, places welcoming the public will no longer be threatened by closures. 
• The free movement of people will also become the norm again. 
• The HIPRA laboratories, based near Girona, which specialize in the manufacture of animal vaccines, began a year ago to design a vaccine for humans against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Research is well advanced today. Clinical trials are expected to begin before the beginning of the summer.

Small reminder of the deconfinement plan in Spain: 

4 PHASES: 

Phase 1: reopening of small shops and café terraces, reduced capacity to a third, reopening of hotels but without access to public areas (swimming pools, restaurant.) 

After a 15-day evaluation, an evaluation to see if it is possible to move to phase 2. 

Phase 2: resumption of certain school activities and reopening of restaurants, theatres, cinemas or venues, with a capacity reduced to one third. 

Phase 3: Increase of capacity to half. 

Phase 4: Installation of a new normality. 

As Catalonia is one of the hotbeds of contagion in the country, the Happy Place Barcelona team reminds you to be careful and take care of yourself:)

Maëva