Latvia pulls the emergency brake – and goes into lockdown again: In view of the rapidly increasing number of corona infections, the government in Riga is sharply reducing public life in the Baltic EU country for four weeks. The cabinet imposed extensive restrictions on Wednesday and a night curfew on November 15.
This is intended to break the chains of infection and reduce the “terrible overload” of the health system, said Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins after the government meeting.
In order to get the spread of the virus under control, only shops for daily needs are allowed to remain open from October 21st. Leisure, cultural, entertainment and sports facilities will also remain closed, and catering establishments are only allowed to sell outside the home. Events and meetings are prohibited. In addition, citizens are only allowed to leave their homes between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. with good reason. Most employees are required to work from home, and school operations will be switched to distance learning.
In Latvia, the corona situation has recently worsened despite new restrictions. According to the health authorities in Riga on Wednesday, 1,400.8 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants have been registered in the last 14 days – a high since the pandemic began. Health Minister Daniels Pavluts said that the intensive care beds for treating seriously ill corona patients in several hospitals across the country are already fully occupied.
In Latvia, only a little more than half of the 1.9 million inhabitants are fully vaccinated against Corona. The government has been trying for months with only moderate success to increase the population’s low willingness to vaccinate. Doctors and epidemiologists were sometimes skeptical about the lockdown – it came too late and was only a short-term answer to the high number of infections.
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