Two-speed Lithuania: in two counties, quarantine release may have to wait a long time

Last week, the highest number of cases was registered daily in the last 5-8 weeks. March 29 The acceleration of the pandemic reached + 27% and was positive in most of the Lithuanian municipalities. Hospital employment in Lithuania reflected the dynamics of the cases: in the Vilnius region it increased, while in others it decreased or remained stable. Currently available COVID-19 genome sequencing results indicate a rapidly growing prevalence of the B.1.1.7 strain.

one) New cases grow in the country every day of the past week, compared to previous weeks.

two) The acceleration of the pandemic is positive in most municipalitiesi.e. the number of new cases or the percentage of positive tests increased for almost a week in almost all of Lithuania.

3) The situation in the counties is very different: In Vilnius and Marijampolė counties, the number of newly detected cases and deaths related to COVID-19 is growing rapidly.

In Kaunas, Alytus, and Utena counties, the number of new cases is increasing, but the number of deaths is not increasing; Rapid deterioration has not yet occurred in Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Telšiai and Tauragė counties.

4) The situation in hospitals is also uneven: Bed occupancy in Vilnius / Alytus COVID-19 group has been growing since mid-February and additional beds were added in March; in other groups, total bed occupancy decreases and beds for COVID-19 are eliminated.

5) Analyzing March 1 and 22. randomly selected COVID-19 genomes, it can be seen that Expected prevalence of variety B.1.1.7 (British) is increasing by county (Fig. 1) and the ratio among all scanned genomes is growing rapidly (Fig. 2). FIG. Figure 3 shows the probable distribution of new cases by strain, we see that recently the number of cases of strain B.1.177.60 (descendants of the Spanish Lithuanian strain) is stable, but new cases associated with strain B .1.1.7 are growing exponentially.

Changes planned after Easter: restrictions will be maintained for some municipalities

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė says that after Easter, from April 6, the order of movement restrictions will be changed. According to the Prime Minister, the current strict control of movement between all municipalities is no longer scheduled to apply from next Tuesday.

“April 6, restrictions on circulation will expire as now, as now for all municipalities, before there was a restriction for some municipalities. At the beginning of next week, we will know what the situation is and if it is necessary for some municipalities to abandon that restriction ”Said I. Šimonytė

“Maybe (we decide – ELTA) to modify it, say, to allow the movement of people who have a vaccine or a negative test result, if it is technically possible in time for the police to verify it.” There are really a lot of those ideas and we’re trying to test all of them, some of them, ”he added.

The head of government believes that restrictions on movement control among all the country’s municipalities will no longer apply after Easter.

“I think we won’t really enforce them as long as we haven’t enforced them by now. Basically, that restriction is probably more focused on holidays and the fact that there has been a lot of discussion about what those holidays should be like here, so we asked them to everyone staying home for the holidays, ”said the Prime Minister.

ELTA recalls that the government decided on Friday to extend the quarantine until April 30, as well as to renew restrictions on movement between municipalities as of March 27. Until April 5th. inclusive.
It was decided to allow movement only between “circular” municipalities and for other important reasons.