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Corona emergency brake: EU country imposes toughest lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic

2021-10-19T17:28:47.114Z


The corona situation in some EU countries is currently worsening. Latvia is now drawing tough conclusions and is going into lockdown.


The corona situation in some EU countries is currently worsening.

Latvia is now drawing tough conclusions and is going into lockdown.

Riga - An insufficient vaccination quota and strongly increasing corona numbers despite recently imposed restrictions.

Latvia is now pulling the Corona emergency brake and is going into lockdown again.

It is said to be the strictest since the pandemic began.

The corona numbers in Latvia had recently risen rapidly.

In the last 14 days, according to the health authorities in Riga, 1,307.2 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants were registered on Monday - a new high since the beginning of the pandemic.

Corona emergency brake in Latvia: the situation is coming to a head

In addition, only just under half of the 1.9 million inhabitants in the country are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The government has been trying for months with only moderate success to increase the population's low willingness to vaccinate.

In view of this situation, it has now been decided to lockdown again.

According to the government in Riga, this applies from October 21 to November 15.

Then public life should be cut back to get the virus under control.

All shops and service providers - with the exception of shops for daily needs - are to close, and school operations are largely to be converted to distance learning.

According to a statement from the State Chancellery, citizens should only be allowed to leave their apartments between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. with good reason.

Events have to be canceled.

Corona lockdown in Latvia: "So that we don't have to experience the worst"

"For the measures I apologize to the people in Latvia who have taken responsibility for themselves, their relatives and society and are vaccinated," said Health Minister Daniels Pavluts after the decision, as

reported by

the

Tagesschau

. The government is to blame that so few people are vaccinated: "We must therefore ask you to stop your life for a few weeks so that we do not have to experience the worst," he said.

Latvia and the Baltic states as a whole took the top positions in terms of new infections in a Europe-wide comparison.

This is probably also due to below-average vaccination rates in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Latvia is hardest hit among the Baltic states.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day incidence is currently almost 800.

In Romania, too, the corona situation is currently worsening dramatically.

(rjs / dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-10-19

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