The coronavirus situation in Lithuania is no longer improving, the country's Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys said on Tuesday.
"The situation is not improving. The number of cases is, unfortunately, growing, and growing consistently. The percentage of positive tests is also high," the minister told reporters.
"Unfortunately, judging from these tendencies, we might have the whole of Lithuania in the ‘black zone’ within the next seven to ten days," he added.
The "black zone" means that the 14-day rate of new coronavirus cases in a specific area exceeds 500 cases per 100,000 people and the percentage of positive tests is above 10 percent.
The existing rates now stand at 382.3 and 7.5 percent respectively, based on the latest data from Lithuania's statistics office.
Read more: Lithuania’s vaccination strategy: balancing between chaos and efficiency
According to the minister, "positive cases among symptomatic patients stands at around 40 percent", which is a worrying tendency.
"It means that the coronavirus starts dominating among people with symptoms, which is a very serious signal," he said.
According to Dulkys, the situation in hospitals is getting worse as almost 1,000 patients are now undergoing treatment.
"The most serious situation is in Vilnius where the number of hospitalised patients has risen more than 30 percent over a week. We also have another city – Kaunas – where the situation is deteriorating," he said.
Some 961 Covid-19 patients are now being treated in Lithuanian hospitals, including 107 people who are in intensive care units. Some 804 patients need oxygen masks and 58 patients are on lung ventilators.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
