“Latvia Will Be More Cautious Than Estonia When Lifting Restrictions”

Latvia’s Health Minister Ilze Vinkele asserts that Latvia will be more cautious than Estonia when relaxing restrictions imposed due to COVID-19.

Vinkele’s comments come days after the fact that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania reopened their common borders on May 15 and created a “small Schengen zone” of around 6 million people, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Latvia’s Health Minister said that in order to relax the country’s restrictions, the government first must follow experts’ recommendations, after which decisions can then be made.

“This global crisis was caused by a virus, a disease. There can be nothing political here. I am convinced that the assessments and recommendations of infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists must be taken into account in resolving the crisis caused by the virus. And only after that can politicians make their own decisions. It has turned out quite well in Latvia. At the very beginning, the recommendations of the specialists were more modest than the will of the politicians to give orders,” the minister pointed out.

Vinkele added that “borders closed, people home and the army on the streets” was not an appropriate approach for Latvia, even though for some persons that would have been the right decision.

“Firstly, we do not know how long the crisis will last. And if we start using severe restrictions in the case of a small number of people infected, we will not be able to keep them if the situation lasts, for example, a year. People are not ready for such extreme restrictions,” Vinkele stressed.

According to her Latvia’s restrictions have been the most modest of the Baltic states compared to Estonia or Lithuania, adding that “our neighbours decided to close the border, not Latvia.”

Even though Baltic states’ “mini-Schengen” has been created to facilitate the movement between three countries, it also has been unsupported by some persons.

The Vice President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas has criticized the idea of the creation of a ‘mini-Schengen’ area within the European Union, upon the end of the Coronavirus pandemic.