In the context of the third Covid-19 wave, which has already increased infection rates elsewhere in Europe, Latvia may have to decide on limiting certain services and travel, Latvia’s Healthcare Minister Daniels Pavļuts said in an interview to TVNet programme Nedēļas fokusā.
On Wednesday, 24 February, director of the Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) Liene Cipule mentioned on Twitter that the third Covid-19 wave is expected in three to four weeks. As a result, during Easter hospitals are expected to experience a workload double than the one observed during Christmas.
Pavļuts said in this context that the government’s objective in this case should be reaching an agreement on a clear action plan in case «the red lights start flashing on the panel.»
Similarly to other countries, the minister believes it may be necessary to take measures to limit movement and certain services, but those will be, according to the minister, «final measures.»
«In Lithuania, for example, where such travel restrictions were previously in place, the decline [of Covid-19 infections] has been much more rapid,» explained the minister.
At the same time, when comparing the two countries, Pavļuts said infection rates in Lithuania are below infection rates in Latvia. This means the third wave may bring «serious consequences.»
Among other things the politician said the government is currently working on Covid-19 data quality. Next week it is planned to double results of Covid-19 tracing capabilities, which are also planned to be further improved in the following weeks.
As previously reported, epidemiologist of the State Disease Prevention and Monitoring Centre Jurijs Perevoščikovs mentioned at a government meeting yesterday that after several weeks of decline of infections the epidemiological situation in Latvia has worsened again because the number of Covid-19 infection cases over a seven-day period has increased.