One month before confining at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, chef Jordi Roca opened the doors to the latest proposal to come out of the Roca brothers’ world. Casa Cacao is one of their most personal projects to date, one that’s inspired by the pastry chef’s passion for chocolate. A boutique hotel that houses a chocolate workshop, right in the heart of Girona. Obviously, the hotel’s debut was tarnished by the events that unfolded soon afterwards. The youngest Roca brother is taking this isolation time to ponder about the problems that was the catering and hospitality industry will be facing after things go back to normal.

After the simultaneous paralysis of society and numerous economies around the globe resulting from efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, opinions on the relationship between the virus and climate change — how the pandemic is causing a global drop of pollution levels  — have been manifold. In the longer term backdrop there is an additional school of thought that is associating global warming with the emergence of new viruses that could represent future threats akin to that of SARS-CoV-2. How is climate change affecting the virulence, emergence, and re-emergence of viral threats?

The anti-malaria medication has made headlines in recent weeks as a potential solution against coronavirus. How accurate are these news reports? "Hydroxychloroquine does have properties that could turn it into a new asset," says Elena Gómez-Díaz, a researcher at the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine ‘López-Neyra’ (IPBLN-CSIC) and recipient of a BBVA Foundation Leonardo Grant in 2017. The proven efficiency of hydroxychloroquine in malaria treatments could contribute to speeding up the development of a COVID vaccine.

Saving lives and preventing the collapse of intensive care units (ICUs). That is the priority for Spanish hospitals (and those around the world) during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent report by the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid, which analyzed one of the non-invasive ventilators from China (Yuwell 730), concludes that “its use is expected to delay or even prevent the need to transfer patients to the ICU, and therefore help to relieve their saturation.”

On Tuesday March 31st, health care supplies to be used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic arrived at the Zaragoza airport in northern Spain. The supplies represent a portion of the material that BBVA has secured as a donation for Spain’s health care authorities. The consignment, coming from China, consists of 753 ventilators with an additional 700 surgical masks to be used with the ventilators. A flight carrying additional equipment purchased by the bank also landed in Barcelona on Saturday, with 260 ventilators. The rest of the bank’s donated equipment is expected to arrive shortly. This is the first delivery from BBVA’s committed €35 million in the fight against the virus in all countries where it operates.

BBVA Foundation recognizes the Estonian composer with the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Category of Music and Opera for cultivating an original language, which has led to the creation of a unique sound world. In its citation, the jury underscores that Arvo Pärt’s creations are “a fresh approach to spiritual music, especially in his choral oeuvre, that reduces the musical material to the essence.”