End of year to come with higher Covid-19 incidence - Perevoscikovs

RIGA - As the holiday season is approaching at the year-end, Covid-19 incidence is expected to rise, said Jurijs Perevoscikovs, head of the Infectious Disease Risk Analysis and Prevention Department at the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

According to CDC data, after a gradual decline in the number of new Covid-19 cases, there has been a rise by 35.1 percent over the past week - from November 21 until November 27.

He said that there is an increase in Covid-19 incidence after holidays as social contacts is one of the factors - people are socializing and thinking less about distancing.

Covid-19 incidence also might be influenced by spread of the new subvariant BQ1. This is the leading variant in Europe right now.

"There is no one model that could best reflect the situation. There are scientists projecting that Covid-19 incidence in Latvia will remain the same or it will grow. Some others expect a gradual drop. I believe that the incidence will remain the same or slightly rise, but it will not be as dramatic as earlier," said Perevoscikovs.