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Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys says release from quarantine could be accelerated by more extensive testing of the population for the coronavirus.
According to him, the data of the last days show “bad trends”, but there is still no reason to speak of the third wave.
According to A. Dulkis, the situation may be worsened by the decrease in the discipline of the population and the mutations of the virus.
– How do you assess the changing dynamics of morbidity? Some already call it the third wave.
– I think that it is really not possible to make such statements from as much data as we have now. Data analysts say that data must be sustainable. You need to watch the trends for seven or 14 days.
Yes, the fact is that we now have alarming signs for a few days and we need to take some action accordingly. To do this, we thought about the quarantine scenario, the possibilities and introduced indicators to monitor them and make decisions based on them.
It is still early to draw very strong conclusions, but the fact that the improvement in our indicators has stopped has caused some indicators to start showing bad trends. This is a sign for us and we need to think about what to do next.
– Why did the decline in infections stop?
– I think that today in Lithuania there is a person so I could say exactly why there is not. We can only consider or try to find out a few things.
One nuance is our universal adherence to rules and guidelines. This discipline is very important. Another thing, yes, it was the expectations that have been sent and some businesses – beauty services, commerce – have been released, and an increase in mobility has been observed in the days when it was already announced that it was planned to release. – not only transport, people in general. Consequently, there may have been an increase in contacts. The third thing that is less visible to us is the behavior of the virus itself. We sequence, we investigate, we eagerly await knowledge, maybe there are some mutations.
– Do you associate greater mobility with the expectations of the population, which arose before the release decisions?
– It can be understood humanly that time is enough for us to have movement restrictions, so the urge and desire to move is natural.
– You mentioned that something had to be done. Maybe you can tell me what to take when you see this trend, do you have a plan for the key steps?
– The government has already undertaken a sequence project, active work is underway. All the best and most important of our labs work.
Another thing is that we cannot live together with the same tools. Now it’s in our arsenal of tools for more diverse testing. Suppose we want to test the cumulative method in education; now a pilot school is being developed. If we are successful in this pilot project, it means that we can consider perhaps other schools, other organizations. This is an option, how not to sit at home and how to continue activities.
Another thing is that a lot of fast antigens will arrive in Lithuania next week. That is, we will launch the option of additional preventive tests through mobile points. Another thing is that we are increasing preventive testing in general, and a few weeks ago we gave municipalities the opportunity to increase testing on their own. For our part, we also increased the number of groups that could be tested, do serological tests for antibodies. I mean that to handle this crisis, we are introducing many different testing methods that should help us learn to live with the virus differently, which means that we could open more activities but increase testing for those people who are involved in those occupations. .
– Cases of coronavirus have been reported in social work institutions several weeks after the second vaccination. Today there was an example in Taurage, yesterday in Trakai. How do you rate that information?
– I believe that each of these cases must be evaluated in detail. I would ask everyone to spread these types of messages carefully and only after entering the situation.
We already have almost 10 percent. Immunization of the Lithuanian population, the first vaccination is almost 5%. vaccinated, with the second vaccine – 2.5 percent. Yes, vaccination does not protect against all diseases of life and from all cases, so it helps, but even when crossing the street, the car can still crash, even if it is vaccinated.
Each person is different, each body is different, I believe that these specific cases must be analyzed in detail. There are really few of them so far compared to the number of people who have been vaccinated.
– Is the ministry following these cases?
– All vaccination items, all side effects are included in e. health, in the system, in the records. There is not a single person whose vaccination or side effects are unknown. The State Medicines Control Agency monitors these things, publishes its information to the extent that it has been observed. So far, looking at the critical mass, the symptoms associated with vaccines certainly don’t stand out at all – they’re not something that should be of great concern. Perhaps there is a difference between the vaccines themselves. There are some additional feelings after one shot after the first shot and after the second shot after another. But there really is no basis for such things that should pose a risk of posing such problems.
– The second quarantine lasts a month longer than the first. If the situation does not improve, how will the problems of general fatigue be addressed when people tire of moderation and no longer adhere to it?
– From a human point of view, we all pursue a common goal. What is very important, we have made it very clear what we have to do. We are all in that one problem. I really don’t think we want to join the ranks of those bunnies, that I’m not going to play in the game right now and let others play. We are the inhabitants of a basketball country. If any of the halves make it difficult for our team to succeed, does losing mean that we will now leave the field or the stands and leave the team to chance?
It seems to me that we have really done very well and done a lot, the achievement of the people is. Let’s remember what the situation was in mid-December: we were the first in the world and the first in Europe in terms of bad numbers. Today we deal with problems on another level. The trends of a few days should not force us to abandon our forces.
I would even like to say something like that and invite everyone to join in and focus, because in mid-December, when we were in the most critical situation, there was no vaccination process in Lithuania.
That is, if we do not catch up, if we go back to a situation where medical institutions start to separate from patients again, then we will ruin the vaccination process itself, because it is the people of the health system who are involved. in this. process. Therefore, we must find the strength and continue to focus on compliance, to achieve that result.
The more we change those tools, the more tests we will do, but we also need people to participate in those tests. We allowed renewed activities to use free preventive testing, but a very small percentage came for testing.
– Do tests reduce the likelihood of reverting to limitations as the situation worsens?
– I think we really shouldn’t consider those things. In particular, if we still manage to follow the rules together in March, we will have vaccinated most of the people in the age group 70 and over with the first vaccine in March. It is in this age group where there are more deaths. This means that this group of people is already safer, we have also vaccinated health workers. Trends suggest that infections are occurring, but are significantly reduced. And if the tests continue to appear in our culture, we will be able to manage that virus by those means and we will not have to stay closed. This will make it better to catch that virus, isolate the contacts more quickly, and then we’ll stop it by those means.
Author Augustas Stankevičius
