Welcome back everyone to episode 8 of MetTech on Air. I'm your host, Caroline Moulin, and I'm joined today by Jesus Rueira Rodriguez, Director General

Strategies, Special Projects, and International Affairs at Metac Europe.

Jesus, listeners will already know you from our previous shows, but it's a pleasure to have

you back on Metac-On-Air.

Thank you, Caroline, and it's a pleasure to have you with us.

So here we are again, once again, to look at

what have been the latest developments over the last few months in the world of the COVID

developments. Correct. So yeah, after 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic, European countries are

now starting to ease coronavirus restrictions. Since the pandemic began, we've had to

adjust in the way we deliver healthcare. Today, we'd like to explore how COVID-19 has impacted the

future of healthcare, as well as challenges and solution around these practices. So we've got plenty of

things to discuss today, and I guess I can start with my

first question. So Reussus, last time you were a guest in this show was in November 2020,

if I remember correctly. Can you tell us what has changed since then and give us an update on

where Europe is in the management of the pandemic?

The management of the pandemic has shifted substantially, and there has been two main drivers for that shift. The first, of course, is the vaccine rollout, and the fact that now

we are in a situation where a large proportion of the population in all of the European countries has

been vaccinated. That in itself makes it easier to have opening up a society in different ways,

getting people back to work, having the schools up and running, and so on. To counter that

somewhat, unfortunately, we're seeing the emergence of

more and more viral strains, like the famous Delta variant, that makes things a little bit more

complicated. They're more infectious. They're potentially more likely to cause harm to the people

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