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Kusai Kedri
Press TV, Barcelona
Cafés and restaurants in Catalonia are back in business after a prolonged coronavirus shutdown that impacted thousands of businesses pushing angry workers out on the streets in protest.

Following a sustained decrease in the daily number of COVID-19 cases, the regional government scrambled to improve a plan to reopen the economy unveiled last week, by increasing operating hours and adding concert halls to the list of businesses that can reopen.

Under the new guidelines, food service businesses are able to operate indoors at 30% occupancy while they can serve at full capacity on terraces provided they keep a two meter distance between tables.  The four-phase reopening is expected to last two months with a gradual lifting of the restrictions on movement inside of the Spanish north-eastern region.  A 10 pm curfew will stay in place for several weeks as situation in hospitals and intensive care units remains critical.

Meanwhile, authorities have launched massive antigen testing campaigns across the region in a bid to control the spread of the virus.

Although test Sensitivity for rapid antigen testing is generally lower than for the standard PCR authorities are pushing for their deployment arguing they could useful in detecting infectious people.  With a population of 7.5 million, Catalonia has registered over 300 000 cases of Covid-19 and over 15 000 death since the start of the pandemic.  The reopening of the economy in Catalonia is fraught with its fare share of risk and reward for everyone involved.

It will take at least two weeks to find out if the second shot at the virus was a success.  The stakes for the food service, hospitality, culture entertainment and sports industries have never been higher

Original Article Source: Press TV | Published on Tuesday, 24 November 2020 03:10 (about 1220 days ago)