Rising corona numbers: Latvia is pulling the emergency brake

The Baltic states are currently Europe’s corona hotspot. Nowhere is the number of infected people so high, and vaccination rates are low. Latvia will go into lockdown the day after tomorrow.

Craftsmen weld pipes together in the foyer of the university hospital in Riga, while others keep pushing new hospital beds into the hall, which will soon be used to accommodate patients. Latvian television shows these images. Head physician Eva Strike is in the middle of the hall. According to the doctor, the situation has never been as tense since the beginning of the pandemic. Above all, there is a lack of staff: “It’s difficult to say what’s coming now. Perhaps the families will soon have to look after the patients themselves or volunteers.”

They cannot say how many helpers they will need. “I hope society will join in and we’ll get rid of the pandemic soon. Before we have to decide who can get what treatment and who can’t. This is the so-called red line.”

Stop life for a couple of weeks

Extensive restrictions will apply in Latvia from Thursday – the strictest since the beginning of the pandemic. Almost all shops are closing and there is a curfew for the evening and night. Events have to be canceled. After a long session, the Latvian government appeared before the press last night.

“For the measures I apologize to the people in Latvia who have taken responsibility for themselves, their relatives and society and who have been vaccinated,” said Health Minister Daniels Pavluts. “We, the government, are to blame for the fact that too few people are still vaccinated. We must therefore ask you to stop your life for a few weeks so that we do not have to experience the worst.”

Just under half of the people are vaccinated

Latvia and the other Baltic states are at the top of the European comparison when it comes to new infections. In Latvia, the seven-day incidence is 767.3 according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, with almost 2900 deaths registered so far. In all three countries, vaccination rates are below average. Latvia is doing the worst, just under half of the people there have full vaccination protection. And this despite the fact that the government had already introduced compulsory vaccination for certain groups in the summer – in the healthcare or education sector, for example.

Arturs Silovs is the head of the Young Doctors Association and criticizes the government: “The lockdown is no surprise now, but everything comes much too late, including the mandatory vaccination. At the moment we cannot do anything. We have to live with it.”

“Measures not logical”

There are regions in Lithuania where only one in three people is fully vaccinated. The dissatisfaction of the population with the corona policy is one reason for the bad numbers, according to Rimas Jankunas, scientist at the University of Kaunas. “A recent poll showed that the majority of Lithuanians criticize the government’s policies. People think that the measures are not logical, for example the mask requirement or that you are no longer allowed to enter a large supermarket without a vaccination certificate.”

The minorities in the countries are particularly critical, say Latvia and Lithuania. They now have to be convinced quickly, say doctors. A lockdown is only the short-term answer to the high number of infections.