Coinciding with the expansion of the British variant of the coronavirus, which currently represents approximately half of the cases diagnosed in Catalonia, the R number of reproduction of the virus has risen in ten days from 0.82 to 0.99. If the British variant is the main cause of this rise – which is not proven but is the most likely hypothesis – the R number can be expected to continue to increase in the coming days as the new variant continues to spread.
If the trend of the last few days continues, the R will be around 1.2 at the end of next week. This means that the epidemic will have entered exponential growth again in Catalonia in what will be the beginning of the fourth wave, which will begin in more adverse conditions than the third: almost 1,500 new daily cases instead of 1,000 and almost 600 patients admitted to uci for covid instead of 300.
Given that vaccines have not yet reached a large part of the population most vulnerable to covid, the consequences of this fourth wave could be more serious than those of the third. This threat places the Generalitat before the same difficult decision as in previous waves: more restrictions or more hospitalizations and deaths.
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