Covid-19. March 15

The government proposed to extend traffic restrictions in 16 municipalities. The restrictions would also apply to Vilnius and the Vilnius region, Klaipėda and Neringa.

The Ministry of Healthcare also proposes to extend the restrictions in Birżai, Klaipėda and Kupiškis region, Marijampolė, Neringa, Panevėžys and Šalčininkai region, Širvintos region, Švenčionys region, Trakai region, Utena region, Vilnius and Vilnius region, as well as Visaginas.

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted problems that have been growing over the years, Živilė Simonaitytė, the deputy minister of healthcare notes. According to her, the state was not prepared for crises of this scale, which complicates the current vaccination campaign.

“The e-health system is not functioning well, so we cannot provide registration, we do not have normal communication information, we do not have a normal infrastructure for distributing funds,” says Simonaitytė.

“In many cases, it is even hard to imagine how the state could be so unprepared for a situation of this magnitude,” she said.

It is planned that once mass vaccination begins, residents will be able to register through the e-health (e-sveikata) system.

The Centre of Registers reported that “the e-health system, like any other IT system, can experience problems due to the large number of people logging in.”

Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Latvia called for a European Union summit to discuss “huge differences” in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a statement released Saturday (March 13).

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz suggested on Friday that some EU members may have signed “secret contracts” with vaccine companies to receive more doses than agreed under joint community agreements.

Kurz and four of his colleagues sent a letter on Friday to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, President of the European Council. The letter states that “doses are not shared evenly across all EU members.”

“If this system remains the same, it will lead to huge differences between member states, allowing some countries to become resilient within weeks, while others will lag far behind. That is why we are calling on you to hold a debate on this important matter as soon as possible,” the statement reads.