Data from the Open Data Portal for Disease Prevention and Control (SPKC) shows that 22 people with Covid-19 have died in Latvia since the beginning of June this year, until the end of last week, September 23.
Four Covid-19 patients died last week.
Over the summer, state-paid testing of people also continued, but it was limited - screening testing only continued at treatment facilities. However, the observed increase in morbidity was reported as early as the beginning of September. With students coming together in classrooms at the start of the school year and adults also staying more indoors, the virus is more likely to spread in the general public.
The fact that data on the number of infected people cannot currently be trusted too much due to limited testing was acknowledged by the head of the public Health and Epidemiology Chair of Rīga Stradiņš University, Professor Ģirts Briģis. At the same time, he believes, there is no basis for mass testing right now. Briģis said the increase in the incidence is better illustrated by the number of people in hospital with the infection.