On Wednesday, the Lithuanian government decided not to allow hairdressers and shops to reopen.
Earlier this week, the government said they would consider additional lockdown easing measures on Wednesday, which would include allowing non-grocery shops and beauty salons to reopen.
However, the government did not consider the option during its meeting on Wednesday.
The cabinet will decide on further lockdown easing steps next week, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said at the meeting.
Read more: Lithuania allows ski slopes to open
Earlier on Wednesday, the expert commission that advises the government on the coronavirus crisis management proposed not to ease the existing restrictions.
"We cannot ease them soon after we move out of the worst-case scenario," Ramunė Kaledienė, member of the commission and professor at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), told BNS.
"Following intense discussions and having looked into the experience of other countries, the [commission] has not presented any proposals to relax anything next week. We suggest waiting for the lower limit of scenario C," she said.
Scenario C refers to a situation where the country’s 14-day coronavirus infection count stands between 500 and 100 per 100,000 people. Lithuania’s current rate is 414.9.
Businesses demand explanation
Lithuanian hairdressers and beauty salons want the government to give reasons for delaying their reopening.
Jolanta Mačiulienė, president of the Association of Hairdressers and Beauty Professionals, says that business associations have not yet received answers from the government as to why they cannot reopen.
The beauty industry learned to provide services safely during the first quarantine last spring, she said, but now they feel that nobody listens to them.
"We don't know why [the government] postponed the decision, because we have received no answers [to our inquiries]," she said.
‘At odds with reality’
The government's decision to delay the reopening of non-food shops is “at odds with reality and logic”, the director of the Lithuanian Association of Trade Companies said on Wednesday.
“That's at odds with reality and logic, because the reality is that a significant number of the businesses that are now closed are starting to operate illegally,” Rūta Vainienė told BNS.
Out of 19,000 retail businesses, around 5,000 small retailers with low customer flows are closed, according to Vainienė.
“We have a paradoxical situation where 75 percent of retail businesses that have the largest flows are operating, but those that have outdoor entrances aren't allowed to reopen. That's really at odds with logic, and we hear no convincing argument for that,” she said.
If the reopening is delayed for longer, some companies may decide to shut down for good or lay off workers, Vainienė said.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
