RIGA, Feb 25 (LETA) - As the new UK variant of Covid-19 becomes more widespread within society, it should be taken into account that restrictions may have to be tightened even more, Minister of Health Daniels Pavluts (For Development) said at a government meeting today.

Currently, the "traffic light principle" states that if the prevalence of the new UK variant of Covid-19 increases by more than 5 percent during the week and local spread is suspected, stricter restrictions may have to be imposed.

"Colleagues, we are not only suspicious, we now have evidence of the new variant being transmitted locally, and that number is growing rapidly. Therefore, we have to take into account the fact that most likely already next week there will be signs that would not only prevent us from re-opening something, but would require us to make requirements even stricter," Pavluts explained.

Another "traffic light principle" criteria is that new restrictions should be introduced if the 14-day cumulative morbidity rate per 100 000 population exceeds 700 cases. However, this figure is currently at 501 cases and is slowly declining.

Restrictions should also be introduced if there is a very rapid increase in the infection rate, ie if the seven-day cumulative rate per 100 000 population increases by more than 20 percent. "We are not in this situation at the moment, but it is not unthinkable that it could happen," the minister said.

He highlighted, among other things, the fact that the sequencing results justifying the spread of the new Covid-19 strain are now being revealed with a one-week lag, and the spread of the new strain is currently increasing.

As reported, after several weeks of decline, the current epidemiological situation in Latvia has deteriorated once again, as the number of Covid-19 cases is increasing over a seven-day period, said Jurijs Perevoscikovs, an epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

At present, according to the epidemiologist, data no longer shows a decrease in weekly infections - yesterday there was an increase in the number of seven-day cases by 0.4 percent.

The epidemiologist also noted that out of the currently detected cases of the new UK Covid-19 variant, six became infected in Latvia as a result of local transmission, while another became infected in Sweden.