Medic organizations call on government to act urgenty, introduce harsher restrictions for curbing Covid-19

RIGA - The Latvian Association of Medics and the Latvian Association of Young Medics demand the government to act urgently and introduce harsher restrictions for curbing Covid-19 infection.

The organizations are concerned that the state health care system has been overloaded and is to face a collapse.

"The consequences will be felt not only by Covid-19 patients, but potentially any Latvian resident. We should stop living in illusions about reserves of Covid-19 beds and human resources in Latvian hospitals," the organizations said in a statement.

If urgent and radical decisions are not made in the nearest days, health care system capacity will be exhausted in a couple of weeks, medics say.

"Considering the epidemiological data, the delay in actions already now has allowed the uncontrolled virus spread in the society," medics say.

The medics call to introduce restrictions on nonessential contacts among people and to promote vaccination, especially among risk groups. "Broader vaccination will not show an immediate effect, but it will ensure long-term effect," medics said.

As reported, also a group of experts from the Cross-sectional Coordination Center has called on the Cabinet of Ministers to prepare a set of measures for curbing uncontrolled Covid-19 spread.

The center's deputy head Vladislavs Vesperis said that the experts believe that the government should adopt these measures as soon as possible - during the first week of October. The measures should come into force on the next day after the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients has reached an indicactive level - 800 and 1,000 patients.