No new Covid-19 restrictions needed at the moment, but it would be premature to ease existing ones - expert

  • 2021-12-08
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - No new restrictions are currently needed to curb the spread of Covid-19, but it would be too early to ease the existing ones, Professor Girts Brigis, head of the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Riga Stradins University (RSU), said in an interview to TV3 channel Wednesday. 

The expert said that the epidemiological situation in Latvia has stabilized - Covid-19 incidence is no longer declining but it is not rising fast either. "Against this backdrop, of course, politicians, entrepreneurs and representatives of various spheres are eager to think of various exemptions, but easing the restrictions would probably be premature. I am not saying that additional restrictions would be necessary at this stage," the epidemiologist said.

Brigis said that the chances of ending the current state of emergency on January 11 as planned will increase if Latvia manages to spend the upcoming winter holidays with lower Covid-19 incidence figures.

Brigis said that people should not abstain from meeting their family members and closest relatives at Christmas but strongly advised against attending mass events and going on foreign trips, especially because of the spread of the new omicron variant. 

Asked to comment on the dangers posed by the omicron strain, the expert said that we still know too little about this virus variant but that the greatest concerns are that omicron might be even more contagious than delta. For the time being, there are no indications that this new variant might be more lethal than the already known coronavirus variants, Brigis said.