Latvia is the worst in the world in terms of the spread of the virus, although half of the inhabitants are already vaccinated

Lokdown again on Thursday in Latvia: all stores, except food, will not work, cafes and restaurants will not work, schoolchildren will be sent to the remote control, and from 8 pm to 5 in the morning a commandant hour will be valid - it will not be possible to leave the house.

These are the most stringent measures for the whole time since the beginning of the epidemic: even last year, in winter, the commandant hour was introduced only during the Christmas and New Year holidays, and it began at 10 pm. These measures are taken at a time when almost half of the population has already been vaccinated in the country. But there are no other options, Latvia is the worst in the world on the growth of new cases of coronavirus per capita.

A year and a half ago, in the first months of the Latvian epidemic, he proved itself to be better than the rest in Europe: in a small country with a low population density, it was enough to control the spread of the virus in time.

Since the beginning of autumn - the opposite is true. In many countries where a high level of vaccination has been reached, restrictions are removed, because the disease curve goes down.

In Latvia, the peak itself - now: until recently, the record number of sick people was registered on December 31 last year - 1861 people.

Since the beginning of October, almost every day more than 2000 new cases have been fixed, the new record - 2797 sick - was registered on October 16. This is not much in absolute numbers, but a lot in terms of per capita. Today, the total number of patients identified in Latvia by Covid is already more than 10% of the population ( with a population of 1,859 thousand people, 188,722 infections were detected . - Ed. ).

The so -called cumulative incidence - the number of new cases for 100,000 people over the past 14 days - exceeded the mark of 1350. In the worst period last year, in December, it kept at 700. This is an important indicator: it shows the activity of spreading the virus and the load on the healthcare system, and, compared with last year, it worsened almost double.

"Ahead - a real collapse"

The government announced the emergency on October 11, then some restrictions were introduced - they closed shopping centers for the weekend, recommended that office employees go to the remotes, the unevaced were forbidden to go to stores, except for food ones. Unvaccinated in Latvia from the summer even less rights: and before emergencies, they could not sit in cafes and restaurants inside, attend most events, go to films and theaters, use a significant range of services - for example, go to a haircut or gym.

All this turned out to be few. According to the Ministry of Health, as a result of restrictions of October 11, the contacts between people were reduced by 5-10%, but it is necessary - by 40%. First of all, officials, but doctors beat the alarm. On October 4, the Latvian Society of Doctors demanded to introduce radical measures.

“We are anxiously stating that the state health system is now experiencing a huge overload and ahead - a real collapse,” the doctors said in an open letter . - If urgent and radical decisions are not made in the coming days, the exceeding the capabilities of the healthcare system will become a matter of several weeks. In the light of epidemiological data, it should be concluded that delayed actions have already led to an uncontrolled distribution of coronavirus in society. ”

Hospitals are really overloaded. From Monday, planned operations have been suspended - all doctors are occupied only by urgent cases and patients with coronavirus. Even earlier, the ambulance warned that she would stop going to the challenges that were not related to the threat of life - fractures, small in the area of ​​burns, high temperature and childbirth without complications, because there are not enough brigades. So far, they have not reached the extreme - the need to sort patients, when the resources are not enough for all hospitalized and doctors will have to choose whom to treat. But the Ministry of Health predicts by November the lack of beds, so it is planned to use the non -used corps of hospitals, sanatoriums and attract private medical institutions.

In the conditions of the upcoming medical collapse, the government decided to introduce the hardest Lockdown as possible until November 15. Schoolchildren, except for 1-3 grades, will study remotely; All office employees are without fail to transfer to the remote; Any events are prohibited; Cafe, restaurants, sports centers, beauty salons, all cultural and entertainment institutions are closed; You can not gather in groups of more than 10 people; restrictions on entry into the country for foreigners with tourist purposes are introduced;

From 8 pm to 5 in the morning, a commandant hour will operate. These measures enter into force on Thursday and act for everyone.

Delta strain and antiva

The representative of the Center for the Prevention and Control of Ilze Arai explains : the main difference from last year is Delta-Stamm, which is approximately twice as infectious . Another difference is a more open lifestyle, including full -time education in schools, which has resumed since September.

There is a third difference - vaccination, the full course of which took place 50% of the population. But this figure is not enough - for comparison, the average level of EU vaccination is 64%. The vaccinated ones suffer less often, according to the Center for Prevention and Control of Diseases, of 7.5 thousand people who were ill in the last week of September, 78%did not pass or partially underwent vaccination. There were only 22%vaccinated, and they are much less common in hospitals.

Moreover, among those who have a vaccination certificate, there are those who have not passed this vaccination. Since the beginning of August, the state lord has already opened several criminal cases on the sale of vaccination certificates.

There are completely exotic cases. The journalist of Latvian television LTV talked with a 53-year-old teacher who posted ads in the newspaper: she is looking for a person who is ready to infect her for money. The teacher, who introduced herself to the Iveta, said that she was afraid of vaccination, but is not afraid to get sick, and is ready to pay the patient with the coronavirus for the infection that guarantees her a covid certificate. According to the teacher, some of her colleagues are also ready to get sick for money.

After a meeting of the Crisis Management Council on Monday evening, Prime Minister Krishyanis Karinsh apologized to the vaccinated. “I urge all vaccinated to carry one burden, this is unfair, but if we do not carry this burden, we will suffer ourselves,” the prime minister said .

In the next 4 weeks of Lokdown, the rate was made for vaccination: the government hopes that there are enough residents to vaccinate so that you can return to normal life. The Ministry of Health discusses how to make vaccination available in 24/7 mode and organize the possibility of vaccination at home for the elderly. Some of the people in case of rejection of vaccination after November 15 will not be able to work - the presence of vaccination or a certificate will become mandatory for employees who communicate with customers: sellers, beauty masters, coaches, and waiters. The same applies to employees of social services, doctors and teachers.

At the same time, Latvia remains a country with a high level of distrust of the vaccine: according to a recent survey , a quarter of the inhabitants believes that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus itself. The share of those who are afraid of vaccines is higher among the Russian -speaking population and is 30%, similar to those speaking in Latvian - 22%.

Language restrictions interfere with vaccination

This is partly the result of the communication policy of the government. So, in neighboring Estonia, where the percentage of Russian-speaking ones is less, the Prime Minister during the epidemic has several times addressed residents in Russian. This was not in Latvia. Many still recall the officials of the posters hung in Russian in the summer with an appeal “to vaccinate to meet with their great-grandmother”: double reading arose due to improper translation from the Latvian language. Information published on the website of state departments in Latvian, as a rule, is more complete and more diverse, and there are more information channels.

This problem is also recognized in the government. On Tuesday, part of the Cabinet of Ministers advocated the temporary changes in the rules of the language policy that will allow you to treat individual letters in Russian to the Russian -speaking residents of the country - now this can only be done in the state language. The voices were divided in half: exactly half of the officials believe that an individual call to vaccine will work, and this is now the most important thing. The second half believes that this will not work anyway, which means that it is not necessary to amend.

Supporters of letters in Russian were supported by the Prime Minister. He promised that if the vaccination rate does not increase, it would be necessary to extend the restrictions after November 15.