Tallinn Mayor Mikhail Kylvart considered the country’s strict quarantine regime to be insufficient to combat coronavirus and called for a state of emergency to be declared as soon as possible, writes ERR.
According to him, a critical situation has developed in the republic with the spread of infection and the authorities cannot guarantee that it will not worsen within a few weeks. “The dynamics indicate a worsening of the situation. What are we waiting for? (…) We have a crisis, we need a state of emergency and a lockdown,” Kylvart said.
He stressed that in order to prevent high mortality and the collapse of the medical system, the government should take tough measures, while preparing a large-scale assistance package for citizens and entrepreneurs. “Let’s wait a month, and then the lockdown will happen on its own, because most of the population will either get sick or will be on self-isolation,” the mayor concluded.
On March 9, Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas announced the government’s decision to introduce a strict quarantine regime in the country due to the spread of the British strain of coronavirus. According to her, this mutation is currently recorded in 98 percent of the analyzed tests.
Within a month, all educational institutions of the country will switch to distance learning, all shops that do not sell essential goods will be closed, cafes and restaurants will completely stop working, and the movement of citizens on the streets will be limited.
Earlier, Kylvart advocated the emergency use of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the country, if its effectiveness is confirmed by local experts. He believes that due to new outbreaks of coronavirus, the republic cannot hesitate with vaccination, and therefore it should not be guided by the opinion of the regulatory bodies of the European Union (EU) in this matter.