Experts in Lithuania say that the daily incidence of the COVID-19 virus is likely over 1000 per day and climbing. It may even reach the level of the Omicron variant. Residents are urged to resume wearing masks and work remotely if at all possible.
The Kaunas polyclinic is already handing out masks to all visitors, and they will be mandatory as of July 18. Some other hospitals and clinics in Kaunas not yet initiated such stringent restrictions, however will do so as required by the Ministry of Health, never lifted the restrictions since the original outbreak, or simply recommend precautions.
Cases of COVID-19 are increasing throughout Lithuania, and in the port city of Klaipėda half of the test results were positive on July 12. Hospitalizations are likely to increase by the last half of August.
Seimas president Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen confirmed that the Health Ministry is monitoring the situation but there are no concrete plans yet to reintroduce national restrictions.
Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys said that sequencing testing is being considered to identify the dominant coronavirus variant as a sufficient number of samples is emerging amid the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. If the number of infections continues to rise as it has so far, the National Public Health Laboratory will join the sequencing process from mid-August, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Commission will then be able to help with testing, Dulkys said. He also pointed out that there were only 15 EU countries capable of carrying out sequencing tests based on sample volumes. “Their data tell us now that in some 70 percent of cases we have those two Omicron sub-variants that started this whole increase in infections,” the minister said, adding, however, that there is no evidence right now that these sub-variants cause more severe forms of the disease.
