Whole of society needs to lessen current Covid-19 wave to avoid harsher restrictions - Cipule

  • 2022-01-21
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - At present, stricter Covid-19 restrictions should not be introduced in Latvia, but instead the current wave must be lessened with the participation of the whole of society, Liene Cipule, the director of the Emergency Medical Service (NMPD), told Latvian Television this morning.

As Cipule explained, a rapid lessening of the current Covid-19 wave could mean that Latvia would experience the next wave of the virus in the spring. Instead, the specialist would like to see the waves of the virus smoothed out with the participation of the population, and thus society would gradually acquire immunity by the spring, without the overburdening of hospitals.

Cipule urged people to follow all epidemiological safety recommendations so that the country can avoid introducing new restrictions, but she acknowledged that it could not be ruled out that hospitals could reach a workload level that would require additional restrictions.

The head of the NMPD said that the number of calls to the service started to increase once again from the middle of December, when not only the number of Covid-19 patients increased, but also more chronically ill and injured people sought help.

Cipule also acknowledged that omicron can now be considered a slightly milder form of Covid-19, requiring less frequent hospitalization and fewer patients in hospitals, but the overall number of infections may be very high in the coming months, so hospitals may experience a high overburden of patients.

Regarding the prioritization of patients, Cipule noted that this happens whenever there is a shortage of resources to provide assistance, and accordingly such a possibility cannot be ruled out during this wave.

The NMPD also currently has about 60 employees infected with Covid-19.