Šimonytė Advisor: May I encourage you: After the holidays, we are discussing a more liberal quarantine scenario, please allow more activities

On the radio news program “Question of the Day”, Živilė Gudlevičienė, the prime minister’s health adviser, assured that while security requirements are maintained, more liberal activities can be expected after Easter.

“It could probably cheer up, as we say, to give candy to everyone because situations are now being modeled in more liberal ways. Right after Easter, we sat down, discussed and made certain decisions so that we really should allow more activities, but really with that security element, ”he said.

Lamb vaccination

On Thursday, news engineer Ingrida Šimonytė promised that in April Lithuania would receive approximately 100,000. dose of coronavirus vaccine. The prime minister noted that the vaccination rate is increasing, already reaching 19,000 on Wednesday. The problems arise in the vaccination of the elderly, in the group over 70 years, 42 percent were vaccinated.

Lithuania has vaccinated 40% of people over 80 years of age. first dose of vaccine. Meanwhile, Ireland, with almost 5 million. 94% of the population has been vaccinated. of this age group, Sweden: 88 percent.

Simon Krėpšta, senior adviser to the president, assured that it is about organizing the process. “These are countries that have received exactly the same number of vaccines in terms of population as we have. It is not about vaccines. Here it is already about organizing the process ”, explained S. Krėpšta.

According to him, poor communication with older Lithuanian people has a negative impact.

The prime minister’s adviser noted that communication is improving.

“Those communication styles are already changing, it has been discovered that more people are communicating in the Ministry of Health (SAM) and perhaps clearer messages are being sent. But I want to remind you that when the former minister appeared on television every day in the spring, what we heard then was the same every day. It will never be the case that all is well for everyone. There are different people, different opinions, ”he said.

Ž. Gudlevičienė provided an example with flu vaccines. According to her, it should be understood that not all people are vaccinated with other vaccines.

“Look, I’ll give you another example. When flu vaccines were bought every year, or really all the age groups that were in the risk area, or really everyone was vaccinated one hundred percent. No. Once again “Everyone evaluated their risk and decided to vaccinate or not. Here, I could say, there is such complexity of our knowledge, education and culture that determines the small amount of vaccination,” said the government representative.

The counselor considered that people could be mistakenly selecting information related to the vaccine and opting for social media messages of unknown origin instead of official SAM or government websites.

“Maybe we really need to communicate more and more widely, but again, it all depends on funding and second, on public procurement,” he said.

Ž. According to Gudlevičienė, information brochures have already been produced, which are translated into other languages ​​so that information about vaccines reaches all groups in society.

Looking for gold in the middle

The counselor stressed that the objective of organizing vaccination is to choose the golden mean so that the process is flexible but not chaotic.

“Yes, these jobs are done, how to program, how to do it (electronic vaccination certificate – aut.past.). Again, there are maneuvers between all. Vaccinations, relapses, tests: these three criteria must be included in that application, ”said Ž. Gudlevičienė.

Arūnas Teišerskis, the president of the Lithuanian community in Ireland, said that people in Ireland get vaccinated quite willingly. According to Lithuanian Lithuanians, the vaccination rate in this country is slightly higher than the European average.

“There are enough people in Ireland who get vaccinated. More immigrants refuse. It is said that they left their countries without trusting the government and brought that feeling to Ireland,” he said.

In Ireland, normal Easter doesn’t smell

Easter will be marked by limitations not only in Lithuania, but also in Ireland, which has achieved much better vaccination rates.

“We can only compare it to Easter last year, because ordinary Easter doesn’t really smell. Ireland is a country that has already had its third wave, because everyone in Europe is afraid of the third wave, and in Ireland, it is about to give in, because the second wave took place in autumn, when the country was also closed. , except for schools. After that, politicians came over quite populistly to celebrate Christmas and that made the rise in infection as strong as it had been since the spring. The number of cases has increased considerably. For a country like Ireland 7-8 thousand. there are many diseases a day. The hospitals are full, ”said A. Teišerskis.

He said the number of intensive care patients was several times higher than expected. Hospital operating rooms were turned into intensive care units. Currently, the majority of new cases in Ireland are due to the spread of a British mutation.

“It just came to our attention then. The opening of schools has already started,” explained A. Teišerskis.

In full, as the Lithuanian living in Ireland said, schools will open only after Easter. It has also been reported that people will be able to move more than 5 km from their home. People can move within their municipality or 20 km within another municipality.

“Now such a liberation is being made, until now there is no talk of opening larger spheres,” said the president of the Lithuanian community in Ireland.

Sweden is liberal

In Sweden, meanwhile, Easter will be a bit different than usual. Paulius Drungilas, a Lithuanian living in this country, assured that there are few restrictions in Sweden.

“Now the situation is such that we really do not feel very tight. We do not have serious masks or restrictions, especially for small companies. It is possible to travel freely to buy bread both in small companies and in large supermarkets. The main limitation is the number of people per area Please watch this strictly.

Everything works, there are a very limited number of people. But that there would be some restriction that would cause some inconvenience, it had not yet been felt. The biggest limitation is that the opening hours of the cafes are limited. If I’m not mistaken, it probably only works until 8pm now. In this way, they reduce the crowds where they give food, ”said the Lithuanian Swede.

Drungil said that people in Sweden had turned sports clubs into nature. People don’t travel anymore either. And employers can prevent them from returning to work after a vacation abroad by ordering them to undergo tests and isolate themselves.

Asked how the country manages to comply with the fairly liberal conditions for handling the pandemic, but to keep pandemic rates under control, the man assured that everything is determined by conscience.

“I think they (Swedes – aut.past) consciously listen to the authorities, they try to follow the recommendations,” Drungil said.