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In Lithuania, pandemic indicators continue to fluctuate slightly; its dynamics now is similar to that of 3 weeks ago: the number of cases and the percentage of positive tests began to grow slightly, but there are no sudden changes. As these indicators increased, the negative momentum of the pandemic that had been in place for a week returned to the positive zone, indicating the increase in the pandemic.
Mortality and hospital employment rates continue to decline in most regions, with the exception of the Vilnius region, where the number of hospitalized and resuscitation patients increased. Sequencing shows an increasing prevalence of COVID-19 virus strain B.1.1.7 in Lithuania; In some counties, this strain already represents the majority of identified strains, but there are counties where only isolated cases of this strain have been found.
Record increase in the percentage of positive tests
The number of new cases varies around 500 per day and the number of new cases in 14 days is 100,000. the population has been around 220 since mid-February, we do a little more than 7,000 surveys a day and that number has been stable for 3 weeks.
The acceleration of the pandemic has fluctuated from -20% to + 20% each week since the end of February and is now moving again in a positive direction, with both the number of cases and the percentage of positive investigations increasing.
There are about 20 municipalities where the number of cases is increasing, but there are up to 37 municipalities where the percentage of positive tests is increasing, a record number that we last saw in December. This is the result of the low test volumes in small municipalities: several new cases have a strong impact on the percentage of positive studies.
The total number of hospitalized patients continues to decline, but bed occupancy in the Vilnius region increased by approximately 15% and additional treatment and resuscitation beds were developed for COVID-19.
Both the total and the number of deaths from COVID-19 were largely unchanged.
So far, the B.1.177.LTU strain (Lithuanian version of the Spanish strain) is still prevalent in Lithuania, but the proportion of the B.1.1.7 (British) strain among all genomes that have been successfully sequenced is growing. The overall expected prevalence in Lithuania is currently 15-20%, but the situation is different in the counties.
The graphs show the data obtained up to 2021. March 2, so the situation has already changed faster. For example, among all the PCR tests carried out at the National Institute for Veterinary and Food Risk Assessment (which examines samples from mobile points in Vilnius city), almost 80% of the positive tests did not have the S gene, and in most cases this indicates strain B.1.1.7. Which already accounts for the majority of infections in Vilnius.
