As the spread of Covid-19 in Lithuania continues to intensify, the government will shortly decide whether to quarantine the country again to ensure the mandatory wearing of masks, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonīte announced on Tuesday.
According to the Department of Statistics, the 14-day cumulative number of infections per 100,000 population in Lithuania on September 21 exceeded 500, thus the country as a whole has entered the so-called black zone according to the four-zone division introduced to assess the epidemiological situation in municipalities.
At present, the wearing of masks indoors in Lithuania is only recommended, but with the increase in the number of newly discovered cases of Covid-19, the question of whether it should not be made mandatory has resumed.
“Presumably, we should return to the quarantine regime for this purpose, because the emergency situation is not enough to introduce it as a mandatory requirement, but the recommendations in Lithuania – unlike the Scandinavian countries – are perceived as something that should not be followed at all,” Šimonīte said. “If we can’t beg, persuade, agree with people to take care of themselves, all that’s left is to introduce such a requirement.”
As the head of government told reporters, the cabinet will discuss in an informal discussion on Wednesday what needs to be done to get people more vaccinated against Covid-19, to curb the number of new infections a little and for the health care system to withstand “such unvaccinated pandemics”.
“It is a question of people’s understanding of how serious the situation is. More than ten people die every day and the vast majority of them were not vaccinated; they are elderly people for whom the vaccine provides very strong protection, ”she emphasized.
Šimonīte has pointed out that both the epidemiological situation and the situation in hospitals are currently the most serious concerns in the western part of Lithuania, where the situation is worse than in April, when the pandemic indicators rose.
At the same time, she refused to predict whether the introduction of quarantine would impose any new strict restrictions or bans alongside the wearing of masks.
Since September 13, there have been restrictions in Lithuania for people who do not have a so-called opportunity passport – a document certifying that a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19, has contracted the disease or received a negative test result in the last 48 hours. They are allowed to shop only in small shops of daily necessities with a separate entrance from the outside, to visit libraries and museums and receive the necessary services of state and municipal institutions, but are not allowed to visit public catering establishments, sports clubs, receive beauty services and participate in events with more than 500.-
Holders of “opportunity passports”, on the other hand, do not have to comply with any restrictions, but are advised to continue to comply with security requirements – to wear masks, disinfect hands and keep a safe distance between people in public places.
In the past, decisions to contain the pandemic were made according to four color zones, in which Lithuanian municipalities are divided according to the epidemiological situation, but now the government focuses primarily on hospital load indicators.
In order to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, quarantine has been announced twice in Lithuania – from March to mid-June 2020 and from November 2020 to June this year.
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