-I ALREADY SAID! IT’S NOT THERE, IT’S THE OTHER SIDE! CUM! Naughty, SHAMELESS!!
Me and my companion From an apartment, we are on our favorite observatory, on our fourth-floor balcony, contemplating the blatantly insane fellow who roars in the street, his voice echoing in l/o/o/p between the walls of buildings at the intersection.
—What surprises me the most – comments my compi, sipping a sip of coffee – is that he’s crazy, but not that crazy: he waits for the green light and, ten mine* … wear a mask !!
***
Mad sage, or at least obedient to the new rules of the Spanish pandemic.
Since the 24th, Christmas Eve, the mask, compulsory indoors since early covidic eras, has once again become mandatory outdoors throughout Spain.
The initiative is a response to the rampant high of cases derived from the arrival of the omicron variant, which is already dominant in Madrid (80% of cases) and Catalonia (more than 50% of cases).
Locally, each community also created its own anti-Covid Christmas rules. Catalonia, where cases rose from 319 to 526 per 100,000 population last week, has revived the curfew between 1 and 6 am.
The local government also launched measures to contain crowds in the middle of the holiday season. Meetings are limited to 10 people, and maximum occupancy in a variety of venues, from stores to gyms, has been reduced to 50-70% capacity.
Discos and nightclubs were closed until further notice. Bummer, in a year in which 60% of tickets for the end-of-the-year parties had already been sold, against 40% on average in a pre-pandemic year. People were thirsty for partying, but it won’t be this time.
At first, the new measures should be valid until January 7, after Twelfth Night (6), which is, here, the real day to exchange gifts, with mucha fiesta and processions of cavalgada de reyes –for now, not cancelled.
***
The Spaniard is not happy, of course. There is a perplexity in the air and a big question: if with vaccination and precaution we are not containing the virus, when are we going to get it? Some epidemiologists of national reference already speak of endemic permanence.
Even so, almost half of the population (46%, according to a recent survey) is in favor of expanding the restrictive measures to face the so-called Sixth Wave of the virus.
***
For my Christmas dinner with a friend and a couple of friends, we all took the quick quiz. Just like that at the entrance to the apartment, before uncovering the face crushed by the pff2 and drinking a little wine. All negative. At the end of the night, I slept on the couch, because we were dancing samba until 3 am (which doesn’t make me homesick and some Montsant wines in my head – I’m the last samba dancer in the universe), and I couldn’t go out on the street because of the curfew.
The Christmas of my Catalan boyfriend was more exciting. In the Canary Islands, to spend the holidays with the father’s family, everyone had taken tests before traveling, except for the younger brother, who started to feel bad even before arriving on the island.
Well, well: covid-positive, the damned. Result: everyone testing again and isolating the boy. My namo ended up in a hotel room, drinking beer from the minibar on Christmas Eve. Ho ho ho.
—It’s okay that everyone in the family took the test, but what about the people on the outbound plane?…
My cellmate, I mean from home, again. And its truths.
***
While the wise men on land from Opus Dei do not come, the Spanish population at risk is receiving booster doses, the New Narrative of Hope.
The vaccine’s efficacy is irrefutable, but we know that it is not eternal: according to the head of Microbiology at the Barcelona hospital Vall D’Hebron, Tomàs Pumarola, told El País, “but the protection against infection decreases after six months”.
Therefore, as of February, Covid certificates, which are already mandatory for entering bars, restaurants and concerts, will be valid for 9 months throughout the European Union.
Speaking of nilson… I wouldn’t be surprised to find the Covid certificate in the aforementioned insane man’s pocket. Even crazy people, if they’re not stupid, know that prevention is better than chloroquine.
.
