Presidency: Herd immunity should be achieved by mid-summer

As Simonas Krėpšta, the president’s senior adviser on economic and social policy, said after meeting with experts, the statistics of the pandemic in Lithuania are improving.

“We are seeing more and more positive signs and those timid perceptions that were seen two weeks ago have been confirmed. The peak of the second wave was reached at the beginning of the year and the situation is currently moving in a positive direction, ”said S. Krėpšta.

Head of the President According to the adviser, the EU must have clear objectives on when herd immunity can be achieved.

“It makes sense, in the president’s view, to set a specific realistic, but ambitious goal, whereby we can get vaccines that reach around 70 percent of society, since the quarantine restrictions are temporary measures. The real strategy to overcome this pandemic is social, collective immunity, and only a vaccine and sufficient quantities can achieve it, ”said the head of G. Nausėda. tutor.

According to S. Krėpšta, the president will discuss this with EU leaders on Thursday.

“According to the president, the goal of having enough vaccines can be set by mid-summer. This requires about 70 percent. Society to get vaccinated. Lithuania needs about 2 million. People to vaccinate – have about 4 million. Vaccinations.” said S. Krėpšta.

The requirements for schools and kindergartens must be exempted in the first instance,

According to him, the presidency agrees that the requirements for socially vulnerable kindergartens, schools and families should be made known first, when the epidemiological situation allows.

“We agree with the steps and ideas that schools, kindergartens and socially vulnerable families are the places to be vacated first, when the situation improves, when the epidemiological situation allows,” said S. Krėpšta.

He stressed that given the positive signs, it is important not to return to the situation that existed at the end of December.

“We broadly agree with the proposed expert scenarios, which state that certain steps to reduce operating restrictions can be considered under certain conditions. Those scenarios were presented, were presented by government experts and were also mentioned during this meeting,” said the presidential advisor.

“Of course, we need to assess the context in which we are seeing new strains of the virus that are perhaps more dangerous and spread faster,” added S. Krėpšta.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said Monday that the sudden changes in quarantine restrictions cannot yet be discussed.

“We cannot discuss sudden changes or cancellations when the situation is so fragile. I would not want to simply damage the good dynamics and not be forced to return to the quarantine that was,” I. Šimonytė said at the government meeting on Monday.

Speaking about the current vaccination rates in the country, S. Krėpšta said that they could be further improved.

“Vaccination rates are not bad, we are among the top five countries in the EU. On the other hand, we must not compete with other states, but we must set ourselves an ambitious goal to achieve public immunity, ”emphasized the head of G. Nausėda. tutor.

Experts: the goal is realistic

For his part, Kęstutis Petrikonis, vice-rector of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, said that the president’s goal is to vaccinate 70% before July 15 or 6. The country’s population is optimistic but realistic.

“Each family doctor should provide about a thousand vaccinations of their patients and this would be three or four months. (Tiek) Both must be coordinated and managed. Those figures could be realistic and that proposal to vaccinate so many populations by mid-July it is optimistic, but it is also likely to be achieved if there are enough vaccines, “said Petrikonis.

Proposes the transfer of control of vaccination processes to a single center

According to the researcher, the main recommendation of the experts is that the vaccination process be clear, coordinated by the inter-institutional vaccination coordination center.

“I could plan vaccines on the model of vaccine types. (…) These processes must be supervised. As far as we know, that process is divided into separate institutions, it will probably play out the way it can. However, by centralizing and coordinating it, all processes could be carried out according to the best management principles. Of course, logistics must also be managed ”, said the vice-chancellor of LSMU.

At that time, Professor Edita Sužiedėlienė, Vice Chancellor of Vilnius University, stated that genomic sequencing of the virus was necessary in Lithuania.