Lithuania’s statistics office reported 985 new coronavirus cases on Friday, 833 on Saturday and 600 on Sunday. Vaccinations continued through the Easter weekend, with over 22,000 receiving their first vaccine shots, and nearly 7,000 – their second. Lithuania’s 14-day infection rate currently stands at 389.7 per 100,000 people. Overall, 220,212 infections have been confirmed in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
So far, 388,518 people in the country have been vaccinated with one coronavirus shot, 176,396 have been given booster shots.
Latvia and Estonia secured additional BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine doses as part of a deal reached by EU countries on April 1. Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets thanked EU member states for solidarity, with special gratitude to Lithuania “for good cooperation and support” in the process.
The Financial Times reported that 24 EU countries agreed to a “solidarity” mechanism that will provide almost 3 million additional doses to five hard-hit member states. Latvia will receive an additional 376,000 doses, and Estonia 41,000. Croatia, Slovakia and Bulgaria will also receive extra shots. Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic did not join the mechanism.
Estonia will remove the travel exceptions for Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. Starting on April 5, arrivals from the three countries will be required to quarantine for 10 days. People who have been vaccinated or had coronavirus in the last six months will be exempt.
ERR News announced that quarantine can be shortened with two negative tests, one taken no longer than 72 hours before departure and the second no earlier than six days after the first.
With news from LRT.lt