Health Minister: Politicians were afraid to adopt tough restrictions

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On Thursday, October 7, the government is planning to decide on tougher restrictions to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in Latvia. Minister for Health Daniels Pavļuts told Latvian Radio Thursday morning that politicians had delayed the decision-making because they had been 'afraid' to impose stricter measures. 

Asked why the government had hesitated to adopt restrictions Tuesday, Pavļuts said that the Covid-19 strategy had been developed. It also includes the so-called traffic light principle, which provides for certain limits when reaching certain levels of morbidity. However, in the autumn, when the morbidity was already reaching a level when restrictions should be introduced, the model in question was canceled as a collective decision by the government.

"The understanding at the time was that, first of all, the public did not want any restrictions completely and definitively. This social-political situation was also extremely tense, we remember that there were protests at the end of August. So actually politicians were afraid, and, secondly, vaccination changed this scene," said Pavļuts.

The Crisis Management Council (KVP) will convene today at 15:00 to agree on “the main things”. The government meeting will be convened when there is an understanding of what the scenario for imposing restrictions will be. “I think the government will take the necessary decisions,” the minister said, adding that those decisions should take effect from Monday, October 11.

Pavļuts also said in the interview that at the point where the patient number in hospitals exceeds 1,000, Latvia might have to ask for international help and transfer patients elsewhere. This would not concern Estonia or Lithuania as the situation there is similar, but Germany or Sweden might have to be called for help.

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