Although the number of coronavirus infections continues to grow in Lithuania, the government is not considering placing the country or any individual municipalities under lockdown, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has assured.
He also countered unsubstantiated rumours that a lockdown is to be introduced on October 16.
“Today, there is no basis to speak about introducing a lockdown on October 16 or October 10. I will repeat once again: if the state had to make such decisions to protect people's lives, health and our country's economy, the government would make the decisions and make them irrespectively of any circumstances related to political affairs,” the prime minister told reporters on Wednesday.
Even though the overall number of Covid-19 cases is rising, the more pertinent indicators are severe hospitalised cases and untraced infections If these were rising, it “would probably encourage us to make such steps”, according to Skvernelis.
“If we saw that our healthcare system was ‘overheating’ [...] and our ICUs were being filled with more patients in need of lung ventilation, those number would be important. […] If we had high and growing numbers of coronavirus cases that are not limited to hotspots, such conditions would definitely allow us to introduce quarantine,” he said.
The prime minister also said that five coronavirus hotspots in the country, particularly in Radviliškis and Raseiniai Districts, account for 85 percent of all infections, while elsewhere in the country “the situation is good”.
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