The country, which in the first wave of the pandemic was considered exemplary in terms of combating coronavirus, found itself in a disastrous situation.
Latvia has come out on top in the world in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection per one million people. The authorities decided to impose a strict lockdown, including a curfew, for at least a month. The situation is associated with low rates of vaccination, especially among Russian speakers. Correspondent.net tells the details.
How Latvia’s health care was put in jeopardy
Last week, the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, was diagnosed with coronavirus infection COVID-19. The day before, he met with Finnish President Sauli Niiniste, who eventually went into self-isolation for two weeks on the recommendation of doctors.
Over the previous week, the number of new cases of coronavirus in Latvia increased by 50 percent. To date, more than 191 thousand people have fallen ill in the 1.9 million country.
Over the past day, 2599 new cases have been identified in Latvia. The country’s Ministry of Health expects four thousand new cases a day by the end of October.
The sharp increase in the incidence and low rates of vaccination were the arguments on the basis of which the country’s government introduced the most severe restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic.
The decision to introduce a lockdown was announced on Monday evening by the Prime Minister of Latvia, Krisjanis Karins. “Our health care is in danger. And the only way out of this crisis is vaccination,” he said at a specially convened press conference.
What measures does the crisis council propose to introduce from November 21:
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curfew from 8 pm to 5 am
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extend autumn holidays by one week. After November 1, grades 1-3 will be in school, the rest will go to distance learning for another two weeks
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leave groups on duty in kindergartens
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transfer training in universities and professional educational institutions to distance learning
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close all stores other than those selling essential goods
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restrict the provision of services, close hairdressing salons, beauty salons and catering establishments
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prohibit sports, entertainment and cultural events (cinemas, theaters, concert halls, matches)
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impose restrictions on meetings, as well as limits on the movement of people from different households in the same car
There are no travel restrictions. As the prime minister emphasized, now residents of Latvia are more dangerous for residents of other countries than foreigners are for Latvians.
EPA
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The current restrictions have reduced the number of contacts in society by 5-10 percent instead of the required minimum of 40 percent, the Latvian Ministry of Health calculated.
The country’s Ministry of Health says that due to the constant overload of medical institutions, scheduled services will have to be stopped for three months.
Experts began to talk about the fact that the situation would be critical back in the summer. Then the government reacted with partial bans: it introduced a list of professions with the obligation to be vaccinated, banned visiting public institutions without QR codes, and reduced their working hours.
COVID certificate checks. Whom does it concern
Queues lined up outside the vaccination stations, but it was too late. In just a week, the number of patients in hospitals increased by almost a third, after which it became clear that a little more, and a collapse would begin in the country.
As a result, the government introduces strict quarantine rules, which have never existed in Latvia. And they will work for everyone, without exception, and not just for the unvaccinated. Kaprinsh says that all forces will now be thrown into convincing everyone who has not yet done so to be grafted.
Universal vaccination in Latvia started at the beginning of May 2021. Initially, she was very active, there were queues at the vaccination stations, there were often more people wishing to be vaccinated than the vaccine doses.
At the beginning of summer, the interest of residents of the country in vaccination was facilitated by the introduction of digital certificates, which allowed their holders to travel almost indefinitely throughout the European Union without having to take tests and be in self-isolation.
But by mid-summer, the rate of vaccination dropped dramatically. On the one hand, there was a general decline in the incidence in Latvia; on the other hand, the authorities did not impose serious restrictions on the unvaccinated.
Low rates of vaccination are a problem in many post-Soviet EU countries. In these countries, there is a noticeably lower level of trust in the authorities than in the West.
Thus, in Romania, 30 percent were fully vaccinated, in Poland – 52 percent, in Estonia – 55 percent. By comparison, vaccination rates in France, Spain or Finland are 67, 79 and 75 percent, respectively.
But in Latvia, half of whose population has already been vaccinated, there is another explanation for the slow vaccination: mistrust of it on the part of Russian-speaking residents, who make up almost a third of the country’s population.
Russian speakers living in Latvia know the Latvian language, but prefer to receive information in Russian. Despite this and the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and experts, the government refused to campaign in Russian.
Minister of Justice Janis Bordaens, in particular, called the proposal for the Russian-language campaign “unnecessary advertising of bilingualism, which destroys the national language policy.”
In the face of a lack of information in Russian from the Latvian government, many Russian-speakers learned about the pandemic from the Russian state media, which regularly talk about the negative effects of European vaccines and positively cover the anti-vaccine movement in Europe.
As a result, the Russian-speaking part of the population of Latvia has extremely low confidence in vaccines: while among Latvians 39 percent fully trust the safety of vaccines, among Russian-speaking – only 20 percent. Doctors say there are more Russian speakers in hospitals.
Extremely disturbing news is coming from other European countries as well. Record mortality was recorded in Romania, the country’s healthcare system is unable to cope with the load, and there are no more places in intensive care units.
In Poland, the number of new cases increased by 85 percent compared to the previous week, in the Netherlands, the weekly incidence increased by 44 percent.
In the UK, where almost all quarantine measures have been canceled within the country, for the seventh day in a row the number of cases has exceeded 40 thousand. Tuesday also saw 223 deaths, the highest since March.
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