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In recent weeks, up to 1,700 new cases of coronavirus have been recorded every day in Estonia, reports the Russian BBC service.
According to the New York Times, the country currently ranks first in the world in terms of 100,000 cases. population in the last seven days. According to the latest data, COVID-19 has infected more than 100,000 people in Estonia during the entire period of the pandemic. population, more than 800 people died.
According to Estonian political scientist Raul Rebane, the crisis was caused by government inaction and the chosen approach, similar to “Swedish tactics”.
“Both politicians and the media have reacted to everything as if there were no restrictions, as if it were bad in other countries, and we are going to scratch,” he told the Russian BBC service. “When the number of diseases started to grow after the summer, strategic mistakes were made and now we see the result.”
In his opinion, Estonia was the best way to avoid the crisis, as it has long been possible to start a business and run it online, and lessons are taught remotely even in small regional schools, much less large schools. From the capital.
“Given the potential of Estonia, it is just disgusting,” he said.
The liberal nature of Estonia’s tactics can be seen by comparing the timeline of the introduction of quarantine restrictions with actions in neighboring Latvia: late last year, the incidence of COVID-19 was the same in these countries, but now it is three times less in Latvia. Furthermore, Latvian politicians use Estonia’s failure to combat the spread of the coronavirus as the main argument why restrictions cannot be lifted.
How did the events unfold?
In the spring of 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, the Baltic countries, including Estonia, introduced quarantine without waiting for the coronavirus to spread en masse.
March 12 of last year. Estonia declared a state of emergency, although only 16 cases of coronavirus were recorded in the country at that time. Entertainment facilities and sports centers were closed, and schools switched to distance education.
On March 17, when there were already 205 infected people in the country, the government closed the external borders to foreigners, and in April, all stores except groceries and pharmacies. Thus, the first wave of coronavirus in Estonia, as well as in Lithuania and Latvia, experienced minimal losses.
On May 15, when a “Baltic bubble” formed in the region, that is, free movement within the Baltic States, 1,751 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Estonia. For comparison: in Denmark (population of 5.8 million) there were more than 10 thousand infected, in Sweden (population of about 10 million) – almost 28 thousand.
But in summer, Estonia relaxed, and if the residents were limited to opening public catering establishments, the Estonians did not hesitate and even resumed the activities of the discos. Finally, at the end of August, the incidence in Estonia, while still low, was already twice as high as in Latvia.
I thought everything would be alright
In autumn, Estonia’s liberal tactics only intensified. In October, when the Baltic countries started talking about the impending second wave of coronavirus, Latvia introduced a requirement to wear protective masks in public places, while in Estonia the use of these measures was only of a “recommended” nature, by the way. , started a month later. At the end of November, the morbidity rates in both countries were the same.
In mid-December, the morbidity in Lithuania increased rapidly and this country was in the first place not only in Europe, but also in the whole world – in seven days 100 thousand. there were 97.4 cases per capita.
“Then Lithuania’s morbidity rates started to increase and we thought we would be fine,” Rebane said.
In December, when Latvia closed sports clubs and supermarkets and introduced a national ban on trade in non-food products, Estonia imposed restrictions only in the northern regions of the country, where morbidity was highest, although supermarkets were allowed to continue operating there. The movement of people between cities was free, meaning that Narva residents, who were most affected by the virus, could quietly visit spas like Pärnu.
“The restrictions were not introduced earlier because it appeared that the spread of the virus had slowed down and the measures introduced earlier would be sufficient,” Estonian Social Affairs Minister Tanel Kiik said in December.
In early January, Estonia almost completely resumed school education and then allowed restaurants to reopen across the country, including Tallinn. Residents of neighboring Latvia were jealous of such decisions and made no secret of their surprises, as morbidity rates remained more or less the same in both countries.
The new government, headed by Kaja Kallas, a representative of the right-wing Estonian Liberal Reform Party, took office on January 26, a day after the students returned to school. The Prime Minister has decided not to change the liberal policies of her predecessors and not to introduce new restrictions.
“Estonia has been slow to make decisions. In this case, the change of government played an important role, – Olesia Lagašina, editor-in-chief of the Russian version of the Postimees newspaper.” The new prime minister has not been able to understand the substance of the matter , and the imposition of strict restrictions would not be very consistent with its liberal approach “.
What restrictions are there currently?
In mid-March, when Estonia invaded the world’s number one in terms of morbidity, schools, catering establishments closed in the country and (for the first time!) Supermarkets stopped working.
However, Estonia is not yet determined to take extreme measures.
For example: the curfew has not been announced in the country and beauty salons continue to receive clients (as long as they do not have more than 25% of the total number of visitors).
By comparison, in neighboring Latvia, where morbidity rates are nearly three times lower, cosmetologists have gone to court because they have been unable to work since mid-December.
Last week, Kallas urged the country’s population to wear protective masks and other social distancing measures, but stressed that “it is not worth declaring a state of emergency just for the sake of declaring it.”
“It was necessary to do it in spring for the restrictions to take effect because the government did not have the necessary measures,” explained the prime minister. “The law was later amended and the government can now issue similar orders without imposing a state of emergency.”
What awaits Sputnik?
2021 During the first two and a half months in Estonia, the coronavirus became the leading cause of death. The workload of ambulance personnel increased by a third, hospitals occupied almost all places for coronavirus-infected patients, and scheduled hospital care was limited.
Latvia and Lithuania have extended a helping hand to Tallinn, offering to accept part of the hospitalized patients, but Estonia has not yet taken advantage of this offer.
According to the Delfi.ee portal, citing Hanna Sepp, Head of the Department of Communicable Diseases of the Department of Health, 70 percent. The illnesses are caused by the so-called British strain of COVID-19 and the number of confirmed infections may rise to 2,000 in the coming days. per day (currently around 1.7 thousand).
As before, the highest incidence is registered in the capital region and in the northeast of the country, where the second wave of coronavirus began. The population of this region is predominantly Russian-speaking. Hardly anyone speaks Estonian in Narva, but Russian TV channels are popular here.
If, on average, two-thirds of the Estonian population is ready to be vaccinated (approximately 10% of the population has already received a single dose), the vaccination campaign in Narva could run into difficulties.
For example, as Estonian state television recently reported, only 11 out of 115 employees at the Soldin Gymnasium in Narva agreed to get vaccinated.
∈ Ta [vakcina] AstraZeneca is simply not to be trusted and the rest are waiting for the Russian Sputnik or Pfizer. He said he could get vaccinated in the future, but another vaccine. I think I will vaccinate myself, and then I will tell the teachers if there have been any side effects, ”Romanas Treialas, director of the gym, told Estonian state television.
According to Rebane, many Russian-speaking Estonians are negative about vaccination due to the influence of Russian channels: “Russia is campaigning en masse, many are waiting for Sputnik.”
And some people, according to the Estonian media, are being vaccinated with a Russian vaccine from Narva to St. Petersburg. About 80 thousand. The Estonian population has Russian citizenship, that is, they can be vaccinated with this vaccine without any restrictions.
Meanwhile, the country’s authorities hope to overcome the crisis in the near future. Deputy Prime Minister Jaak Aabas said the vaccine had reduced the incidence of disease in people over the age of 80.
“We hope that the restrictions, reduced contacts and vaccination will help reduce morbidity in a couple of weeks,” Aab was quoted as saying by Estonian state television. “It appears that we will ease the restrictions in stages.”
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