RIGA, Feb 16 (LETA) - The regional approach, which is used in some countries to locally manage Covid-19 restrictions on various services and activities, is a viable solution but it can only be applied to services that do not cause people to move across municipal borders, Health Minister Daniels Pavluts (For Development/For) said at today's government meeting. 

"The safe regions approach works only as long as people do not move across municipal borders to receive services," Pavluts said, explaining that otherwise people from areas with high Covid-19 incidence would travel to municipalities with few infections to receive services there.

The minister also said that improving the existing testing system would a precondition for a successful use of the regional approach to revising Covid-19 restrictions. 

Jurijs Perevoscikovs, director of the Infectious Diseases Risk Analysis and Prevention Department at the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), agreed, saying that the regional approach to resuming services might be epidemiologically justified because testing intensity in municipalities is high enough to produce reliable results. 

As reported, last week, the number of Covid-19-infected people in Latvia reduced by 11.7 percent from the week before, and the share of positive Covid-19 tests decreased, while the total number of tests did not change much, according to information released by the CDC.

Latvia's cumulative 14-day number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population dropped from 577.1 after the fifth week of the year to 548.6 on February 14. Meanwhile, Estonia's cumulative 14-day number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population rose from 570 in the fifth week of the year to 622.8 on February 14.

With 98,325 Covid-19 tests carried out in Latvia over the past seven days, the share of positive tests was down to 7.2 percent (as compared to 69,114 tests the week before, of which 8 percent were positive).

Last week, Latvia confirmed 4,906 new Covid-19 cases, down from 5,559 cases the week before. Covid-19 incidence was seen dropping in all regions of Latvia, except Kurzeme and Riga Region where the number of infections slightly increased. Infections fell steadily in almost all age groups, but rose in 13 to 18 year old teenagers.

Latvia's Covid-19 reproductivity indicator (R) slipped to 0.92 from 1.06 a week before.