BNS: Highlights of Monday 15min.lt

Coronavirus situation:

* 775 new cases of COVID-19 were detected per day, 32 people died. This is the lowest number of new cases per day since November 3. The average number of cases per day has decreased by one fifth over the past week compared to the previous week. “The situation should be treated with caution, but we have positive signs. It is obvious that the applied restrictions also gradually affect the dynamics of the diseases,” says Loreta Ašoklienė, the country’s leading epidemiologist. 2,212 COVID-19 patients are treated in hospitals, 176 of them in resuscitation.

* In Lithuania, vaccination of employees and residents of care institutions started from COVID-19. About a fifth of the institution’s population is considering not getting vaccinated.

* After the media revealed cases in which people could be unfairly vaccinated against COVID-19, President Gitanas Nausėda discussed the situation with Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte and Health Minister Arūnas Dulkis. The president called for additional measures against fraudulent vaccination and the establishment of a citizen vaccination coordination center later this month.

* Taking into account the situation of the pandemic, the Lithuanian Orthodox decided not to resume services with the faithful until the end of January. The Catholic bishops also announced the decision not to celebrate a public mass last week.

* The German company BioNTech, which developed the first vaccine approved for coronavirus in the West, has announced that it expects to produce two billion doses in 2021. Previously, it predicted it would produce $ 1.3 billion. dose.

* A common strain of coronavirus has been detected in the UK in a person who arrived in Finland from Estonia. In Estonia itself, this variety has yet to be identified. It was also reported that the new variety had been detected in Latvia: such a report had appeared before, but this time it was denied. The British strain of the virus, based on available data, is more contagious. In Japan, meanwhile, four people have been confirmed to be infected with another strain of coronavirus, different from strains previously found in the UK and South Africa.

* Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid has been criticized for discovering that she had gone skiing in Switzerland at the end of the year, despite recommendations from the country’s Foreign Ministry not to travel for no reason. The president’s representatives state that the incidence of COVID-19 in Switzerland is similar to that of Estonia, so the probability of infection was not higher.

NVSC holder’s decision. Robertas Petraitis, director of the National Center for Public Health (NVSC), rejected Health Minister Arūnas Dulkis’s call to resign voluntarily. R. Petraitis claims that the criticisms against him are baseless and politicized. “I only heard very clear political statements that you have to sacrifice something,” he told reporters. A. Dulkys ordered to initiate an official inspection on the activities of the head of the NVSC.

Events in the United States:

* Democrats in Congress are taking legal action that could pave the way for Donald Trump’s removal from the US presidency before the end of his official term on January 20. Discussions in the House of Representatives on legal action should begin around 6pm Lithuanian time. Democrats first intend to ask the administration to remove Trump for unfitness for office, and if Vice President Mike Pence does not agree to do so, they intend to press impeachment.

* President-elect Joe Biden has announced the election of veteran diplomat William Burns as director of his administration at the CIA.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Twitter’s decision to permanently block Trump’s account. He stated that freedom of expression can only be restricted in accordance with the procedure defined by law and not by the decision of the administration of social media platforms.

Hockey. The authoritarian President of Belarus, Aliaksandr Lukashenko, received the president of the International Hockey Federation, René Fasel, in Minsk and assured him that he is ready to host this year’s World Cup. According to the original plan, the championship should take place in Belarus and Latvia in June. Latvia has stated that it does not want Belarus to participate and the Belarusian opposition calls for the withdrawal of Minsk’s participation. Lukashenko, for his part, says his country can host the championship alone. Faselis says that the championship in Belarus can take place and urges not to mix sports with politics.

Changes in Sakartvele. Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of Sakartwell’s ruling “Dream of Dream” party, announced that he had decided to retire from politics because his mission had been accomplished. Former parliamentary leader Iraklis Kobachidze could become the president of this political force.

Elections in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz Election Commission has announced that Sadyr Zaparov has won the presidential elections. The 52-year-old politician was released from prison by protesters during mass anti-government demonstrations in October, where he served his sentence on hostage-taking charges. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (ILO) said the election did not guarantee a level playing field for all rivals, as the winning candidate had much more funding that allowed him to overshadow his opponents’ campaigns.

The Israeli decision. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the construction of 800 new houses for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. Some commentators believe the prime minister is trying to attract right-wing voters in the run-up to the March 23 parliamentary elections. The majority of the international community considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank to be illegal.