Several thousand people gathered outside the Lithuanian parliament, Seimas, on August 10 to voice their protest against the government’s planned restrictions for people with no coronavirus immunity. According to police, about 5,000 people joined the rally. Most were of the opinion that “We need to protect the state, the Constitution, to defend our rights, a free choice, for our rights not to be restricted, irrespective of whether a person wants to get vaccinated or not. Finally, vaccination means taking part in an experiment.”
“I came here because I don’t think that the government cares about the people. I have in mind vaccination and the segregation of people into those with national certificates and those without them. It’s wrong.”
“We call for renouncing the strategy of intimidating people and, instead of using a rhetoric that divides the public into two Lithuanias – vaccinated and non-vaccinated – we call for an adequate public vaccination promotion campaign based on science and positive motivation.
Meanwhile, COVID numbers are on the rise. Lithuania registered 506 new coronavirus infections and two deaths from Covid-19 over the past day, the country’s statistics office said on August 19. Both fatalities were aged over 80. Lithuania’s 14-day coronavirus infection rate has risen to 260.4 cases per 100,000 people, according to the latest statistics. Overall, 291,969 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Lithuania since the start of the pandemic. The number of active cases currently stands at 6,276. There are currently 440 Covid-19 patients being treated at Lithuania’s hospitals, 51 of them are in intensive care. A total of 4,466 people have died from Covid-19 in Lithuania so far. The overall number of deaths directly or indirectly related to the coronavirus has reached 9,119.
Over 21,000 people in Lithuania were vaccinated on August 18: 11,366 got their first shot and 9,771 were given the second jab. So far, 56.7% of the Lithuanian population have been vaccinated at least once.
News from LRT.lt
