Offers to learn from Norwegian and Finnish: if we live like them, we will avoid strict quarantine

Lithuanians fear that the country is completely closed, but they do nothing to prevent it. Why?

Sometimes it seems that our calm and peaceful nation once changed into temperamental Spaniards with only parties in mind. Well, we can’t stand still anymore. While reports of COVID-19 scabies are spreading across news shows, portals, newspapers, and even on social media, those sad statistics don’t seem to scare much. It is as if you go through one ear and through the other, as mothers say, scolding children. People don’t want to stop celebrating. Dance in clubs, move cups in bars, go to basketball competitions, throw parties at home, keep celebrating birthdays and invite everyone in line. Do you keep your distance? Protect yourself? No one seems to have heard that. Not only that, in our small state, there are thousands who do not believe that the coronavirus exists at all. And respond to any news about the disease with indignation.

The situation in Lithuania is sad, and in Norway, which is popular with Lithuanian emigrants, the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants has been four times less in the last fourteen days. The same is true in nearby Finland. I visited these Scandinavian countries last month and tried to explain to the locals why COVID-19 is not spreading so fast there, even though face masks have long been optional.

In fact, that really surprised me. In Lithuania, at the beginning of October, we used them everywhere, and in Norway, I was the only one in a big shopping mall with a mask. I admit, I even got friendly advice from a local to remove my mask. Why? He explained in a very simple way: “People with masks look at us with suspicion, everyone thinks that only those who are sick use them.” I refused to take off and thought in my mind that Norwegians would swear by such attitudes.

In fact, the number of diseases and their increase is undeniable, but little by little and little after all. Like I said, four times slower. The same is true in Finland. Questions: maybe they are quarantined all the time? Maybe no one is working there, no one is studying, nothing is happening at all? No, life did not stop, both Bergen, which I visited, and Helsinki, it seems that nothing has changed, everything as before. However, there is a key difference: the public in both Norway and Finland is much more aware. And we should learn from them. Intelligent human behavior, following the rules, turns out to be a huge weapon against the virus.

Norwegians do not dance in this exceptional 2020, so joked my friend, the former journalist Ieva, who lives there. They paused all the fun in March and are still serious. He didn’t relax even in the summer because he knew a second wave was coming. What does this mean? For example, loud music is not available in public places, it can only be so loud that while standing one meter from a person, you can hear what they are saying to you.

I’ll tell you what I had to see for myself. The popular Dark & ​​Stormy cocktail bar in downtown Bergen on Friday night. There are enough people at the bar, almost all the tables are occupied, including considerable distances between them. Bartenders are warned that the rules have changed, it is not possible to book at the bar, everything has to happen with mobile phones. Special QR codes are pasted on the tables, after which a special application opens, where you can order the desired drinks and mark which table you are seated at. The app also displays a warning that you can’t move away from the table unless you want to go to the bathroom or leave the bar. As requested, this is how visitors gather. Except for a girl who apparently got bored that night. He drank one, then another cocktail and was so held hostage that he decided to jump. As if nothing wrong, the bar was not playing very loud music, he liked the song, he stood up and began to move his hands. He didn’t even try to move away from the table, as if obeying, although he was furious. But you may have seen what happened.

After half a minute, two guards introduced themselves to the girl and began to scold her: “What are you doing, ma’am? What’s going on here? Calm down immediately, sit down. You can’t dance now! They scolded her. The girl did not want to stop, argued a little and raised her voice. The guards asked the girl to come out. The party is over for her. I asked the serious waiters why they had been so harsh; They calmly explained to me that the lady with her dance represented a threat to all of us at the bar. And nobody wants to get infected. Whether she is sick or not, no one has clarified, they are all potential carriers of the coronavirus.

This totally humane situation illustrates the dire situation in Norway and the public opinion that the virus must be fought. They walked without masks for a long time, but they certainly took other, apparently much more important, rules very seriously. They were asked not to hang out with big companies, not to have parties at home, to behave as they are asked. Someone organizes, there is an immediate scandal, describes all the press.

If you are asked to have as few contacts as possible, they will not. In this case, it is a little easier for Scandinavians than for us, this is their way. Often loves solitude and peace. Traditional Norwegians and Finns want to shut up at home and be without strangers, unless they are just with their family.

The Finns, by the way, even joke that they are the least visited nation. They really don’t want to invite each other over. Some say that they are so afraid of causing jealousy that they live better than others, some explain that the house is a very intimate, very private space that entering is equal to opening the depths of the soul. They can become friends or work together for many years, but they certainly won’t necessarily open the door to the house. This should not be offended in any way, it is simply accepted in Finland. Norwegians are much more hospitable, but they have heard a public request from virologists in their country not to hold celebrations, not to invite large companies. The majority of citizens tend to trust the government of the country and officials of certain instances, so they listen to the request.

Only this week, more precisely, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday (October 29), the obligation to wear masks at the state level was finally introduced in Norway, but only in places where it is not possible to ensure a distance of one meter from others. people. You won’t believe it, but in one day the view on the streets of Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and other cities has changed. The authorities asked: everything, people immediately began to wear masks. Not on the chin, not on the cheek, but directly on the mouth and nose, as is mandatory. If a stranger does not have a mask and gets too close to the store, a Norwegian will not be afraid to respond, will be distracted, will discipline himself and maybe even give him a mask.

Lithuanians should do the same, but for some reason a completely different fad is spreading here. In the store, people climb on top of each other to fetch a package of pasta. After putting the masks aside, the bus bites, blows its nose, even though there are a lot of people around. Everyone looks at such an irresponsible citizen, but they are afraid to say something to him.

Another really important difference is that everyone in Norway and Finland can get tested for the coronavirus. For example, at the international airports of Bergen and Helsinki, everyone who arrives, if they want, queues and takes the free test. Tourists or residents, it does not matter, everyone has the right to verify. Many controls, tests are enough, so that all people who suspect a disease or simply want to know the answer for sacred peace, take advantage of it. Asymptomatic cases are often traced.

In Lithuania, things with testing are limping. Here, coming back from Finland, calling the coronavirus common line, asking if you could investigate after the trip. The girl surveyed says no, that I will not take the test even if I am abroad for work. But I cough, my throat hurts, I tell him. “No, I don’t belong when I get back from Finland,” he says, ending the conversation. I still took the test, but not for free, but for 75 euros in a private clinic. It was negative. How many of those who spit and fail because it is really expensive? I think hundreds … hundreds of possible virus carriers. Among them are a familiar airplane pilot, a friend who works on an oil rig, a lady from Greece who often lives between Greece and Lithuania, and whom we met.