Čaplinskas: if all this continues, we will be forced to go to the third quarantine

In the last day, 1,056 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Lithuania, three people have died from coronavirus, the National Center for Public Health reported on Monday.

One person died from other causes.

Since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 has infected 25,000 people in the country. 755 people, 19 thousand. 629 – still ill, 5813 – recovered.

A total of 210 people died from coronavirus in Lithuania and 70 from other causes.

He also spoke of the third quarantine.

S. Čaplinskas on the Delfi Day program says that the lessons of the first quarantine were not learned.

“On the whole, so far it seems like we’re getting on the same rake again. There didn’t seem to be an explanation, there were huge gaps in communication, people probably don’t really understand: quarantine is a goal or a tool. So what is the goal, what should the indicators be when we have already reached the goal and can come out of quarantine Now it is clear that the lessons of the first quarantine have not been learned.

We emphasize from the beginning that quarantine is necessary for the public to understand that, unfortunately, it will be necessary to live in new conditions, and be prepared for medicine, social structures, because quarantine is an extreme and very strict measure and has many effects secondary.

Every doctor knows that the treatment of a disease should not be more harmful than the disease itself. If all this continues, we will be forced to go to the third quarantine to stop the sudden spread, but this is not the way out, ”says S. Čaplinskas on the show.

It encourages thinking about how to stop the spread rather than getting out of quarantine.

Visvadas Legkauskas, associate professor at Vytautas Magnus University’s Faculty of Social Sciences, says that serious action is needed right now, because there are many gaps.

“There is a lot of talk about the indicators, but without mentioning them, we have a spread that exceeded all expectations that we could have imagined in early September. At this point you probably need to start thinking about how to act faster, in fact, you don’t need to start anymore, you have to act.

We don’t have to think about how to get out of quarantine, but about how to stop the spread, because so far we have enough free ends that need to be adjusted, “said the associate professor.

According to S. Čaplinskas, even during the first quarantine there were many communication errors, the tests were also significantly delayed.

“Everything was delayed: testing, contact tracing, isolation, trouble informing people. Not all messages were communicated clearly so that people understood how to actually behave. It is not surprising that we find ourselves in a situation where the virus spreads uncontrollably. Secondly, people’s lives continue to be destroyed, both socially and economically, and their health suffers from other health problems, “says S. Čaplinskas.

When asked how the situation in Lithuania differs from, for example, other European countries, the interviewee assured that the recommendations proposed by the EC had been proposed by Lithuanian experts much earlier.

“The errors are still similar, the other thing is that we are a small, cultured and educated country. Somewhere we could be in leadership positions in a good way. If the measures had been implemented in time, the measures that are now being proposed to the EC, and we, the experts, proposed them from the beginning, the situation could have been completely different, because the virus did not come out of nowhere, “he says. S. Čaplinskas.

“The strategy of thought must fundamentally change, from the fact that the government will protect us to the fact that the government must allow the people to protect themselves and protect everyone who is close to them,” added the professor. .

The number of cases can reach several thousand per day.

Visvaldas Legkauskas, an associate professor at Vytautas Magnus University’s Faculty of Social Sciences, says the situation may get worse in the future.

“Quarantine is not safe with us, we don’t have a complete lockdown. Realizing that right now we cannot expand testing capabilities so quickly to provide the opportunities that Professor Čaplinskas spoke about, until those opportunities are expanded, even in the best of cases, we will already have five or even ten thousand cases per day.

Of course, the total closure of the country poses social and economic challenges, but in this place the State has to bear the financial burden, ”says the associate professor.