COVID-19 Update
The coronavirus-related death toll in Lithuania now stands at 2,762, including five earlier fatalities added to the tally on Friday. Overall, 181,280 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Lithuania since the pandemic began. The country currently has 49,584 active cases and 126,548 recoveries. As of January 29, 67,794 people in Lithuania have received their first coronavirus vaccine shots and 15,756 have been given the second shot.
Lithuania’s Health Ministry has released an updated vaccination plan which sees administering the vaccine to the general population in July, after priority groups have been vaccinated.
Lithuania received the first delivery of Covid-19 vaccines in late December. The country’s medical workers were the first in line to receive jabs. The group’s vaccination is nearly complete, according to the ministry. The vaccination of other priority groups, including medical patients, hospital volunteers, care home workers and residents, social service establishments, with two vaccine shots should be completed in February.
The Health Ministry has emphasized that the schedule is provisional and may change. The plan is based on delivery schedules of only two vaccines, from BionTech/Pfizer and Moderna.
2020 Immigration Statistics
The Migration Department has published immigration statistics for the last six months of 2020 (https://migracija.lrv.lt/lt/statistika/pagrindiniai-migracijos-rodikliai-lietuvos-respublikoje).
As of January 1, 2021, there were 87,269 foreign residents in Lithuania, or 3.12% pf the populations. Last year on that date there were 73,751 (2.64%).
The majority of foreign residents in 2020 were from developing countries, with 61,349 having temporary permits and 17,796 – permits for permanent residence. The remainder were citizens of EU countries and their families. From January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021, there were 7% fewer EU citizens in Lithuania, but 21.7% more from developing countries. With the Migration Department having accelerated the application process, the number of persons whose Lithuanian citizenship was renewed increased 2.2 times, from 1,078 to 2,367.
Regional Cooperation Efforts Continue
The Lublin Triangle is an economic, cultural and political regional cooperation initiative whose members are Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, established for the purposes of strengthening mutual military, cultural, and economic cooperation and supporting Ukraine’s integration into the European Union. (The Lublin Triangle initiative invokes the integrative heritage of the historic 1569 Union of Lublin.
On January 29, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis together with his Ukrainian and Polish counterparts Dmytro Kuleba and Zbigniew Rau participated in the second Lublin Triangle ministerial meeting, held remotely.
The Foreign Ministers discussed the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and underlined the need to ensure a constant and transparent flow of vaccine. The meeting focused on the security situation in the region – Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and illegal annexation of Crimea. The Foreign Ministers voiced support to Ukraine’s Crimean Platform initiative and stressed the importance of cooperation with the new U.S. administration, the need for a long-term Eastern Partnership agenda to be discussed at the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit in 2021. The situation in Belarus was discussed with the participation of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, emphasizing the need for fair elections in 2021, and maintaining pressure on Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
