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“Looking at the actions of the Government, it is obvious that we are acting without any plan.
Just reacting to the numbers and both, unpredictable and unplanned, what to do in a week, a month, half a year. The bans alone and their constant and meticulous alternation only annoy people in quarantine, ”says M. Sinkevičius.
“Everything the government is doing recalls an endless story that goes on and on, despite the fact that all the people are already tired. Christmas and New Years we all agreed to close. All were offered to suffer before Easter and deliverances were promised. Now everyone is closed again for another month. In short, you want to wake up like a nightmare ”, adds M. Sinkevičius, president of the Association of Municipalities of Lithuania.
According to the politician, the government should not only think about the actions of the coming weeks, but also urges the rulers to develop a clear plan of what will be done when the quarantine ends.
“We need to start discussing and preparing answers about what will happen after the quarantine. The mountains of problems – social, poverty, unemployment, psychological – are only growing. It is only a matter of time before all that troublesome bubble bursts. The Minister of Health has spoken of a package of 130 measures to overcome the pandemic, so now is the time to start thinking about a package of the same size, but no longer mystical, for the post-quarantine period ”, says M. Sinkevičius.
He recalls that the Social Democrats approached Prime Minister Ingrid Šimonytė in mid-February and proposed an eleven-step pandemic management plan to the government.
The Social Democrats called for the right of each municipality to decide independently on the implementation of specific quarantine measures, the urgent development of a national testing strategy using rapid antigen tests, and the acceleration and mass implementation of an antibody testing program.
M. Sinkevičius states that he is not satisfied with the decision announced by the Government on Friday to return restrictions on movement between municipalities in Lithuania. However, he is reluctant to criticize the Cabinet of Ministers because, according to him, the virus is difficult to predict and doing nothing can put you in a much worse position.
“There is no joy, the mood before Palm Sunday does not change, because we will not think about verbs, we will make our way,” M. Sinkevičius told Eltai.
According to the interim president of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), municipalities are already used to handling traffic restrictions, and preparations for Saturday, when the government’s decision comes into force, have already started in municipalities.
However, it points out that the decision to return the restrictions that had been lifted is justified because no one could have foreseen how the situation would change.
“The virus is such an unknown and unpredictable player.” It is impossible to predict his actions, the magnitude of the attack, if we could do that, we would probably not win any Nobel prizes, “said the Social Democrat.
Although, according to M. Sinkevičius, the situation is complicated, he is not inclined to criticize right-wing governments that have to make difficult decisions.
“I do not envy, in fact, the government, which needs to make all those cardinal decisions in terms of numbers. And for us, the municipalities, the whole of society, it is clear that it works psychologically, because we have opened, we have closed, when will we reopen? It seems that such a fairy tale is endless, “said the mayor of Jonava, M. Sinkevičius. On Friday, the government decided to extend the quarantine until April 30, to renew restrictions on movement between municipalities, ELTA recalls.
The Government imposed a restriction on the movement of people between municipalities as of March 27, taking into account the deterioration of the epidemiological situation in the country, the spread of coronavirus mutations, the proximity of the festive period, which may increase the movement of people between municipalities and increase the risk of contacts. Until April 5th.
It was decided to allow movement only between “circular” municipalities and for other important reasons.
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