RIGA, Oct 6 (LETA) - The Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) will ask the Health Ministry to declare the state of emergency in the health care sector as the situation has deteriorated significantly at night, said NMPD head Liene Cipule in an interview with commercial TV3 television today.

Cipule said that this is the third time the service is asking for it. The situation was very complicated at night, there were lines by hospitals due to increase in the number of Covid-19 patients.

"We face shortage of beds in hospitals, especially in the Riga region - Ogre, Tukums and Jurmala hospitals. It means that we have to find where to take Covid-19 patients, there were lines forming, which means that emergency medical brigades were busy and we could not respond to new calls," said Cipule.

She said that hospital beds are being reprofiled, for example, additional Covid-19 beds were opened in Tukums and Balvi hospital, but they were filled in a couple of days.

"We see oversaturated hospitals, laboratories, family practitioners, which makes us think that the Covid-19 crisis is not being managed well," said Cipule.

As reported, in Tuesday's meeting, called by Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity), the Crisis Management Council already discussed harsher Covid-19 restrictions but failed to agree on concrete solutions. The discussion will therefore be resumed on Thursday.

The prime minister's spokesman Sandis Sabajevs said that after hearing information on the current epidemiological situation, the Crisis Management Council tasked experts with preparing action scenarios and drafting legislative amendments necessary for containing the rapid spread of Covid-19 to prevent an oversaturation of hospitals and to ensure access to essential healthcare services.